A Familiar Assortment
by BackwardsHazard
Summary: It was bound to happen I suppose. Inspired by Corvus no Genmu's 'The Familiars of Zero' and my little romp through Familiar of Zero one-shots, snippets and Abridgelets(coined). Will cover more than just "Louise summons X Familiar"
1. Chapter 1

_**Well, ok then, I suppose it's my turn to make a Foz snippit/oneshot dump, ala Corvus no Genmu. I put it off for long enough, though I do suppose that slumming through the backlog of most of Space Battles FoZ snippit archive did add to my wanting to do this... And seeing as I've been having some pretty bad writers block lately and am unable to finish the latest chapters on my other stories for the moment, I've decided to sink some time into this to try and free my mind.**_

_**So let's see how far this rabbit hole goes, shall we?**_

_**But before we go much farther I think I'll explain two things that I'm going to do differently with this series. **_

_**One, I'm going to list any warnings at the beginning of each individual chapter itself, this includes but is not limited to; violence, suggestive theme's, alcohol/drug use, trigger, etc. Just so you'll all be forewarned as these wont all be sunshine and rainbows**_

_**They'll be extremely varied by genre, so there's that too...  
**_

_**Two, I'll be listing what the chapter is, i.e. One shot, snippit, and what I like to call an Abridgelet, which I think I shall coin right here and now. That's right folks, I said it first! "What is an abridgelet?" You might ask? Simple. Instead of being a short one shot that covers a small portion of a story, or a snippit which covers a single scene or two, an Abridgelet is a complete single chapter story in and of itself, comprised of a dozen or more snippit sized pieces that covers the expanse of an entire series. A good example would be the telling of one of the years of Harry Potter simply by listing all of the 'good' parts and leaving most of the trivial stuff out or simply mentioning things that happened in the interim.  
**_

_**These are usually formed by me when I have so many ideas that they literally cover most of the series, so there's bound to be quite a few of these Abridgelet's.**_

_**Usually these Abridgelets will cover single chapters but that doesn't mean all of them will, in which case these successive chapters shall be named part one, two, three, etc. **_

_**So without further ado, Chapter one of "A Familiar Assortment."**_

_**Warnings: Possible Trigger, Implied drug use, Humorous use of Violence and Suggestive themes, F/F harem pairing.  
**_

_**Type:Abridgelet**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Familiar of Zero or Onion-Tou, all copyrights belong to their respective owners.**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 1: A little bit of Mischief**_

Dancing lights.

That was the first thought that passed through Louise's mind as she stared at the strange assortment of incandescent orbs that floated in front of her.

This was her '_Divine, Beautiful, Wise and Powerful' _Familiar?

Beautiful, perhaps... but wise and powerful? She didn't even want to think about it being divine now that she thought of it. What if she _had_ summoned something _divine_ and forced it under her will? Would she be labeled a Blasphemer? Now that she thought about it, that particular suffix perhaps... just _maybe_ wasn't one of her better ideas.

It certainly _was_ unique though and that had her more giddy than she thought possible.

That was, until she found someone standing in front of her. The man, as it turned out to be, happened to be the senior fire form teacher and the current presiding authority of the ritual that had summoned her familiar. Professor Colbert was his name, an elderly balding man whose bumbling personality made it difficult to take the man seriously. Now however, her teacher sported a severe look, sweat running down his face and his staff in front of him, a prepared fireball on it's tip which crackled ominously.

The man's reaction to the lights had most of the student body wary, her tormentors quieted by the threat of possible danger. Louise felt a sick sort of pleasure that she had summoned something that would quiet the jeers and taunts that followed her constantly.

Now though, she had to wonder what had her teacher so scared. "Mr. Colbert?"

The man flinched slightly, the hand not holding his staff held back to keep her away from the lights.

"Stay back Louise, these are no ordinary lights!" His eyes narrowed. "It is a Will 'o Wisp; A type of minor spirit that presides over mischief. Small they may be but they are powerful when threatened or angry and are known to draw travelers from road ways to their doom."

Louise froze. A Spirit! She had summoned a SPIRIT! The girl paled, her mother was going to kill her. Spirit magic was the realm of the firstborn elves and was considered heresy by the church. If she bonded with such a creature would it mean she herself committed heresy?

Using her not so inconsiderate willpower, the girl calmed her heavy breathing and suppressed her growing panic. No, she wouldn't be considered a blasphemer, she finally realized. The Montmorency were well known to deal with a water spirit from time to time and it was common knowledge that mage's of the past had dealings with spirits to an extent and were never formally punished for it.

But what would her binding as a spirit entail? Gathering what was left of her courage, Louise approached the lights to find out.

"Ms. Valliere!" Colbert noticed only too late that his charge had approached the Will 'o Wisp. He called to her again but the girl ignored him. Gritting his teeth, the teacher allowed the girl to continue on, holding his ground to protect the other students from the possibly malignant spirit

Louise stopped several feet from the lights, staring at them in wonder as they seemed to play tag with each other in myriad displays of sparks and ethereal trails. She cleared her throat which got the attention of the lights.

The orbs stopped their play and stilled almost immediately. For almost a minute, Mage and Spirit seemed to 'look' at each other, despite the latter not having a face for the former to actually 'look' at. This was quickly remedied however as the balls of light seemed to coalesce around a fixed point, the energy assimilating into a singular form that appeared before her. With a small *pop* a creature appeared in front of her.

The thing, barely as large as a man's hand, had an entirely white body except for two little tips of tan on top of it's head that seemed to represent hair. She also noted that the things head was larger than its body, with said body seemingly cutely represented by ill-defined arms and legs. And finally, it's face sported a cute... almost childishly drawn expression of curiosity.

It certainly looked the part of a mischief spirit...

"Nyo?" The thing made a noise reminiscent of confusion, tilting it's head slightly to the side, It's eyes blinking rapidly as it regarded her.

"Um." Louise cleared her throat. "Hello? I...ah." She rubbed her head, trying to think up a good way to ask this creature if it was her familiar. "You wouldn't happen to be... my familiar... would you?" Smooth Louise, really smooth...

The thing blinked again as it regarded the girl and then panned it's eyes upward to look at the other students, then it's eyes roved higher to take in the castle that housed the student body. For several minutes a strange frown of concentration crossed it's features as it seemed to... for a lack of a better term 'feel' it's surroundings.

After another moment the thing seemed to sigh, apparently giving up on whatever it was trying. It looked down at Louise again and lowered itself to her height, tilting it's head again as it got in her face.

"Hoyo?" 'Who are you?' It seemed to ask, staring into Louise's eyes.

Something inside of her, perhaps the childish portion that had yet to bury itself under the cold rationality of steel bubbled to the forefront, willing Louise forward to whisper almost conspiratorially to the creature. "My name is Louise." She whispered. "I know it is rude of me to ask a spirit like you this question but..." Her eyes trailed off to the side. "Would you perhaps..." She blushed. "Be my familiar?"

The little creature seemed to ponder that question for a moment, humming and shaking it's head back and forth to the tune while it poked it's lip cutely. A small globe of glass appeared over the spirits head, which lit up like one of the academy's magical lamps. The given representation seemed to imply that the creature had come up with an idea, a notion that seemed strangely fitting for the little creature.

A devious grin formed on it's face as it pantomimed conspiratorially back to Louise, going over several things in it's own strangely cute grunting and cooing language while waving it's body emphatically to get it's point across.

"So you'll be my familiar if I let you do what you want anytime you're not needed?" Louise asked quietly. The creature nodded. "I'll agree to that only if you agree to stop doing something if I ask you to, alright? I cant have you doing things that might get me in trouble after all."

The creature seemed to think on that a moment, weighing it's options in it's little hands, another strangely emotive way of physically describing it's emotions Louise supposed. Something seemed to click in the spirits mind however as it slowly nodded, holding one of it's tiny hands out to Louise as if it wanted her to shake it.

"You agree?" Louise wanted it to affirm.

The spirit nodded. "Oni!"

Somehow Louise knew that this was the tiny things name and that 'it' was actually a 'he' Nodding to herself, she reached a finger out to shake with the small spirit. "Louise." She smiled, shaking the spirits hand while at the same time pulling her wand from her holster and holding it up between them. "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the five elements, bless this humble being and make it my familiar." She then tapped the spirit on the head once before planting a kiss in the same spot, which made the small creature blush, the hue of almost the entirety of his body turning a soft pink.

Then that pink paled as a sharp hissing noise made itself known.

"Kuu!" The spirits eyes widened in pain as small black marks formed across his chest, seemingly burning into the spirit's being.

An almost motherly concern sprung up in Louise's mind, pain from a familiar brand was not supposed to hurt that badly! She reached out a hand and held the spirit almost like a mother holding a small baby, humming and cuddling him until the pain passed.

"Shhh, it's okay." She hummed. "I'm sorry that had to hurt so much... it shouldn't have hurt that much." She gently blew cooling air onto the brand to soothe the slightly reddened spot. "Don't worry, I'll kiss it and make it all better" She cooed, cradling him and planting small kisses on the tender brand. A small giggle escaped the spirit then and would have made an almost heart warming scene had one of Louise's tormentors not made a disparaging comment towards her, questioning that after all she had boasted that she had summoned and I quote. "Such a pathetic little familiar."

Oni, who had been enjoying the mothering, soothing actions from his summoner snapped taut in her hands. A single, strangely pulsating portion of it's head springing up to throb mercilessly. An eye twitch seemed to join it as several of the other children in the group started laughing.

"Fuu." Louise ignored the jeers of her peers for a moment and stared down at the strangely... irritated look on the face of her familiar -She nearly squeed that she was able call him that!-

Then that joy turned to horror as the spirit's head grew to nearly triple it's size, the entirety of it's eyes turning an almost cute shade of red and mouth forming an ill defined zigzag of what appeared to be a childish representation of teeth. Light glittered for a moment before the spirit flew towards the instigator of the insults with frightening speed.

"AIIIEEEEEEEE!"

_*SNAP* *CRACK* *RIIIIP*_

It was over in an instant as the students and teacher found the instigating student hung from the castle walls by his undergarments. The loud snapping being the yanking upward of said undergarments, the crack being an iron hook -which appeared from nowhere- being rammed into the stone wall and the subsequent rip being the fabric of the boy's unmentionables as the spirit released the weight to follow the laws of physics and let gravity do all the dirty work for him.

Louise stared at the scene for all of five seconds before she stooped over, laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes.

The spirit floated back over to Louise where it landed on her head, a satisfied look plastered on it's face and a small cigar clenched between it's teeth.

Barely able to control herself, only one thought went though her mind as she came up for air, only to bend over again with fresh guffaws.

_'BEST FAMILIAR EVER!'_

_**-ooo-**_

Kirche blinked. She had just finished with her morning ritual of insulting Louise's lack of physique when she found herself wrapped by an almost dizzying array of soft ropes. She blinked again and found herself looking at the ground as she was suspended in air by a single thick rope tied into the back of the strange rope 'harness' that had covered her body, splitting and showing off her breasts while at the same time rubbing her... ahem.

Kirche lifted her head to look at Louise, who was standing in front of her with her familiar atop her head. A satisfied smirk adorned her face and her familiar rubbed it's chin admiringly, giggling lewdly at the woman's predicament.

"Moo Moo." Oni pantomimed little milking motions, snorting in his own cute way at the woman's bovine inspired punishment.

Kirche felt strangely insulted.

How a spirit knew of the ancient and noble practice of Shibari, none of Halkeginia would ever know, or even understand for that matter.

Spirit of mischief indeed...

_**-ooo-**_

"Oh, it's so cute!" a pair of arms short forward, intent upon their target.

Oni turned. "Nyoroo-hrk!" And found himself snuggled between a rather generous pair of ahem... "Will 'o Wisps" The pale milky skin of Siesta the Maid making it almost impossible to differentiate the spirit for the skin of the breasts that were suffocating him.

"Ny-ny-nya!" He grunted several times, extricating himself from marshmallow hell. He then flew several feet off to get away from the huggy woman and get divert her attention. Louise needed some food and he was sent out to get it for her! "Nah! Nah boba! Neh Lou Fuha!" It wagged a comically large finger at her, something that taken with what he had said in his strange language amounted to 'No! No more breasts! I need food for Louise!' How the maid could come to that conclusion was as strange as the little spirit himself.

"Alright little guy." Siesta giggled. "Follow me, we'll get some food for your master."

_**-20 minutes later-**_

Siesta and Chef Martieu stared at the towering platter of food in shock.

"Mah Mah!" The little spirit replied smugly, slapping a rather generous slab of brisket near the bottom that it had somehow cooked in minutes that would have normally taken hours. The pair of humans stared at the glorious menagerie of food that set their mouths to watering and brought uncomfortable rumblings to their stomachs.

Finally, Martieu could take it no longer as he prostrated himself before the spirit, bowing his head to the superior chef. "Can you teach me the ways of the wok oh master of the kitchen!?"

A little paper chef hat appeared on the spirits head, followed closely by a small paper fan. "Oh hoh hoh hooo!" The spirit laughed into the back of his hand, slapping the paper fan into the stack of food. "Bah ah Kusa!" He growled, fire in his eyes as he set to work teaching his new pupil, while at the same time snapping his fingers and sending the food to Louise's room.

He then found Siesta prostrated on the floor as well, happy tears in her eyes "Can you teach me the secrets of servitude oh master of maids!?" She even saw fit to open the front of her dress, showing off the lace of her bra... as if that would tempt the little spirit

Oni blinked, a blank look on his face. He held up a finger, opened his mouth to say something before closing it back, thinking better than to open that can of worms.

_**-ooo-**_

_*Bang!*_

Louise coughed as she got back to her feet, ears ringing and wiping dust from her body. She then looked up to search for the golem that had nearly ended her life and sent her flying into the dirt by it's powerful fist.

"Fuuuuu!"

That was the last thing she heard before a white light flew past her.

_***BOOOM!***_

A shockwave washed over her, deafening her for almost a minute as she weathered the worst of the percussive wave. When her eyes again returned to the golem, all she found was a smoldering crater, of which she could see the comically smoking form of Fouquet twitching in it's center.

Oni stood over the crater wagging an oversized finger at the destruction as if chastising the thief for daring to harm his summoner.

Kirche walked up beside Louise, who's ears were still ringing somewhat from the blast. The pair stared at the massive crater in shock for several moments before Kirche turned to her rival and choked out a word.

"Louise...?"

"Yeah?" She responded, clearly shocked at the destruction the little spirit could cause.

"I take back everything bad I said or thought about Oni-"

Louise looked taken aback. She actually sounded sincere about that... maybe Kirche wasn't that bad after a-

"-He is the perfect familiar for you."

Louise sent her rival a sour look.

The spirit let out a little 'hmph' of triumph while staring at his handiwork.

_**-ooo-**_

_*Creeeeaaaaak*_

The occupants of the church all turned mechanically towards the door which had opened inwards, revealing Oni in all his glory. The tiny spirit cast a long shadow while tapping his foot impatiently into the ground. "Gah Lou NA!" 'Gimmie Louise, NOW!" He seemed to say, growling more like an angry kitten rather than a vengeful spirit.

Wardes noted the throbbing vein on the little creatures head, no doubt showing it's displeasure of him making off with his master. He glanced over at Louise, whose glazed over look was starting to disappear, damn! The close proximity to her familiar was breaking the enchantment. Thinking quickly and with a cry of "Yoink!" the traitorous Manticore captain stabbed Wales through the chest, killing him instantly.

"Fuuuuuuuu!"

Wardes paled at that sound, having flashbacks to only a few days ago and his challenge of the spirit to a duel, as silly as it was, that had been a enlightening experience for the man.

Turning slowly, the man paled further when it noticed that the vein on the spirit's head had doubled in size and it had a large red card held in it's hands.

"Nun nu nu!" Oni chastised, wagging the paper at him, expression darkening with each wag.

"Mommy." Wardes let out a whimper of fear as the little beast approached, the spirit letting out maniacal cackles and dark lines appearing on it's face.

"Papi." Oni corrected darkly, pulling a comically large whip from behind it's back and made a motion for Wardes to bend over and touch his toes. "Oosa papi? Heh heh heh heh!"

The cracking of a whip filled the air, along with the girlish shrieks of a man whose voice rightfully shouldn't go that high...

_**-ooo-**_

Louise stared out of the back seat of the Zero fighter at the large invasion force of airships that threatened the safety of her home. Oni was sitting in the pilot seat of the machine... er... well, sitting on the stick that _controlled_ the zero fighter, seemingly handling it by himself.

They were out of bullets and out of time, it was only delaying the inevitable now that the Albionese airships had broken past the line.

"Nah!"

Louise looked to her familiar, the little spirit waving a hand back and forth in front of his face, all but saying 'no problem.'

Louise blinked once, then turned slowly back to the incoming airships. With a confidence she didn't know she had, the girl pulled the glass back on the roof, grabbing her wand in the process.

She had long realized that her brand of magic was far more useful than what she had first realized. Her familiar had shown her so many wonderful applications of explosions, taking the time to really teach her how to make such pretty-

She shook her head to clear those thoughts from her mind along with any thoughts of pretty colors and noises...

It didn't help that her explosions only got stronger with the spirit around, the runes on it's chest glowing and a sharp increase in her willpower making large castings almost effortless for her. Now, she felt that same power well up inside her, filling her with almost limitless potential. Words; whispers unheard by anyone else filled her mind, making her dance their dance, sing their song and play along with their story as they gave her knowledge she didn't know she knew.

"Explosion!" She whispered hoarsely before the world disappeared in white.

...

...

Louise breathed in harshly, glancing around at her surroundings. They were on the ground she noticed, the plane long since landed on a clear patch of land. She turned around and nearly gasped at the complete destruction of the Albionese fleet along with much of a mountain that had been unfortunate to get caught in the blast. She had aimed for the center of the fleet at the Albionese flagship, for the explosion to wipe out such a landmark that far away from the epicenter... It was then that she noticed Oni sitting on the wing of the plane...

Oh, and there was three of him and they seemed to be sitting behind a small table.

They each clapped, then raised small white signs, each with a number on them. The left one's flipped up and revealed a large Ten. The middle Oni flipped his up to reveal a similar number. The final one held up his sign, but unlike the others this had a Six on his face.

The other two Oni turned to their triplet, eyebrows twitching. "Mah?" He shrugged his shoulders, letting out a feeling of 'What?'

The middle Oni slapped the right Oni over the head with his sign.

The right Oni let out an indignant squawk but got the message and flipped the sign around to make a Nine.

The left Oni facepalmed.

The middle Oni smacked him over the head again. "Unn." He droned, eyebrow twitching and pointing at the right Oni's sign.

The right Oni shrunk under the middle Oni's gaze, taking out a comically large marker and pulling the cap off. He closed one eye and stuck out his tongue as he marked on the page. Several squeaks later he tossed the marker aside. "Aha!" He flipped the paper back around to reveal that he had scrawled two more zeros and a one after the nine.

The middle Oni joined his palming brother in a facedesk.

Louise could only shake her head in amusement at her familiar's antics.

_**-ooo-**_

Karin roared out a challenge, raising her wand to launch a Heavy Wind spell at her daughter to teach her not to disobey her wishes, when a strange... almost foreign feeling invaded her system.

*RIP!*

Karin's eye twitched, the twitch growing several times as a small mewl of pain escaped her lips.

Oni sat atop the woman's head, placed square in the center of the cheetah print thong that Karin wore -something Louise could say with certainty that she didn't need to know about- the small patch of cloth attached to the string that was stretched to it's nth degree rested snugly against her mother's crown. The little spirit took a sip from the tiny ceramic cup that he had acquired from _somewhere_, Louise had long since given up on finding where the little creature hid his things. He then reached down and flicked the elastic strap that wrapped it's way around her mother's forehead. With another groan of pain Karin released her wand and reached up shakily to extricate the torturous garment from her person.

Oni then grabbed hold of the string that had flossed itself between the woman's cheeks and yanked as hard as he could. -Which was quite hard actually-

Karin's eyes rolled up into the back of her head as she passed out on the ground.

The Heavy Wind -Later known teasingly as The Stretchy Panties by her husband and insultingly by her enemies who didn't know who exactly they were taunting.- would later write in her memoirs in her twilight years that because of that particular incident, she would deem it wise that all soldiers go commando so as to never have to experience that pain. -A wise but impotent choice on her part as Oni would have simply conjured up an undergarment in it's place and then proceed to atomic wedgie her anyway.-

_**-ooo-**_

Louise could honestly say that having a spirit for a familiar was AWESOME. Especially when his familiar runes can give you enough magical power to spam the Void: Haste spell. Combined with the magically enhanced armor she had been given by Henrietta from the palace vaults she was perfectly capable of doing crazy stupid things like this with very little danger to her body.

_***BOOOM/BOOOM***_

Twin explosions rung out as Louise hopped over a line of soldiers, followed closely by a zip of white light. The line of soldiers then disappeared in a conflagration as they went on to their next target.

They had long since run out of fuel for the Zero fighter and had to land the thing in a clearing outside Saxe Gotha. After a few minutes of hiding the machine, the two then proceeded to follow Henrietta's orders to the letter and decimate the attacking army to make way for her troops.

Which was what they were doing now.

Another powerful pair of explosions ripped into a line of mage's, stopping all but a few of them from getting their spells off. Louise grinned then, high on adrenaline as she lowered her wand and pulled free Derflinger from her back to intercept the incoming magic and swallow it whole.

"Damn you're a crazy wielder." The blade mumbled to itself in horror. "And stop beating those mage's over the head with me already, they're dead!"

Louise responded to that by launching a powerful blast of return magic from the swords tip at a line of archers, which went up like a matchstick. Their screams of agony only urged Louise on as she cast several more Explosions at the massive cannons that were even now lining her up in their sights, turning the great war machines into giant pipe bombs which sent out havoc and destruction in their wake.

It was at that point that Louise realized why people feared elves so much. This was just a _tiny_ spirit of mischief, what could a spirit of war or destruction cause in a battle such as this?

Cleaving another soldier in two with Derf, Louise decided that it didn't matter. She'd long given up on the holy land, if it hadn't been claimed in six thousand years then it just wasn't going to be claimed. That was her thoughts as the two; master and familiar locked wills together, allowing the runes of the Lífþrasir to power up and cast another large joint explosion that wiped out an entire regiment of soldiers. Things would go fairly similar to that for the next two hours of bloody hit and run combat. Louise would later escape afterwords, the blood of twenty thousand on her hand, nearly a third of the forces stationed at Saxe Gotha and a new title to call her own.

The Bloody Void.

Louise would later come to hate that title as much as her previous one of Zero... but she could cope. She had long since come to terms that she would be a battle mage and she had already taken life so she wouldn't freeze in battle, not this time... After finally exhausting herself and making a quick escape she spent the next five days, hiding away in the countryside and mourning the lives that were cut short. To her friends, this habit would earn her another title.

The Weeping Maiden.

Like the previous two, she despised this title, but for entirely different reasons.

_**-ooo-**_

Louise and Oni froze, just having snuck into a small village outside the Saxe Gotha border to make their way back to the edge of Albion and link back up with Henrietta's forces when something stopped both master and familiar cold.

_*Boing*_

A twitch.

_*Boing Boing*_

Another twitch.

_*Boing Boing Boing*_

Oni floated over to magical 'entitties' that had presented themselves. Blood flowed from the spirits nose as it's eyes twirled in dazed spirals. Moments later it disappeared between the two masses; lost to the Cleavage Zone.

Louise blinked only once before following after her familiar. It really was to be expected, months before in that love potion induced two months that shall forever be known as the "Black Out" Louise had found her newfound attraction for women. It was one of the few things to carry over along with her increasing lack of propriety that her familiar subscribed to. On a side note they were both barred from ever again entering the charming fairies inn during that time. Why? Neither would say but both master and familiar promised never to speak of that time again. With a quiet "Chuuu" Louise slammed her face in between those glorious mounds, humming lightly to make them jiggle in a rather delightful manner.

And it really didn't need to be said that after the Battle of Saxe Gotha and the past week of playing 'hide and go fuck yourself' with the forces of Albion, she REALLY needed an outlet for herself before she ended up blowing the entire continent out of the sky for some perceived insult to her person. Hey, she was tired enough and desperate enough to try... And by the founder would she try...

Tiffiana stared down at the woman and familiar that had made her breasts their home, head tilted and a confused expression on her face.

A perverted giggle echoed between her breasts as Louise and Oni shared in the wonderful experience.

_**-ooo-**_

Siesta...

That's all that needs to be said.

She had tried to love potion her again. After the Black Out incident, her most loyal servant had tried to love potion her again... Well, She couldn't really fault her for that. The maid WAS one of the deciding factors in her turn to women during the 'Black Out That Shalt Not Be Named' after all and Louise did care dearly for her.

And, seeing as she was already in a relationship with Tiffa who just so happened to be a half elf on top of that, it wasn't like dating a second woman could be any worse for her, right?

Louise blamed the effects of the potion still running through her blood at that moment, to which she had built up just enough of a tolerance so as not to act like a complete jackass this time.

That didn't stop her and Oni from spanking the maid like the naughty girl that she was... or taking advantage of her either -To said maid's delight.- Thankfully the potion turned out to be a bit of a dud compared to the first one and didn't last longer than a few days. Louise's budding relationship on the other hand, blossomed. Hoo boy... her mother was going to be pissssssed.

Between Eleanore not wanting to marry and Cattleya's illness there likely wasn't going to be any grandchildren for the Valliere house.

Unless...

Maybe Oni could help with that? The crazy little spirit had done so much for her already... maybe... just maybe...

_**-ooo-**_

Joseph stared in horror -if he was actually capable of that emotion- at Louise's familiar, who was standing almost nonchalantly on top of the pedestal that _used_ to house his firestones.

The little spirit let out a cute little belch, a white hot fire and subsequent ring of smoke lilting away in the wind. Oni raised his hand to his lips, making a kissing noise while raising his hand up. "Mua Des ah Speca meba!"

Sheffield stared at the little spirit in abject disgust.

Louise could only chuckle in pain on the floor, that'd teach em to mess with the Destruction Duo. Take that Karma!

_**-ooo-**_

"SISTER!"

"Ehh?" Oni's voice was rather showy and pleased with himself as he pulled the now indignant Matilda out of hiding so that Tiffiana could glomp-hug the woman, much to Louise and Oni's perverse amusement.

"Kill me now please?" Could be heard from between Tiffa's breasts.

"Sorry, cant do that." Louise snickered. "I wouldn't want to hurt my lover's feelings."

It was almost alarming how fast Matilda pulled herself out of marshmallow hell to get right into Louise's face.

"Care to repeat that?" The threatening tone of voice barely fazed Louise.

"Your sister is amazing in bed." Louise grinned a shit eating grin... that is until Matilda's fist bounced off her face.

"Funny story actually." Louise pointed out with the beginnings of a black eye while at the same time raising a finger in exclamation. "And don't ask how it happened, but she's also pregnant with my child."

Another shiner matching the first sent Louise to the ground before Tiffa could stop her sister.

"Totally worth it." Louise giggled maniacally from the floor, much to Matilda's displeasure.

"How?" The enraged earth mage growled.

"A wizard did it." was not the response she wanted despite how true it actually was and unknowing that Louise owed Old Osmond a few favors after he had showed her how special the Founders mirror actually was.

The swift kick to the ribs, in hindsight, was totally uncalled for but it silenced Louise's stifled giggles all the same.

Matilda would eventually come to accept Louise as family... somehow... If only to be that annoying aunt that babied her nieces and nephews.

Say what you want to about Louise, her and Tiffa's kids were adorable...

"I also have another lover, whom also happens to be pregnant. Just pointing that out!"

Ok, maybe Louise wasn't worth the trouble. Matilda thought to herself, pulling off a rather impressive vertical elbow drop that knocked the poor Valliere unconscious.

Far too soon for Matilda's tastes but now she could have a nice long chat with her sister in all but blood on why sleeping with crazy Void users was a bad idea.

That was until Tiffa stuck out her bottom lip and performed what is commonly known in the anime section of the multiverse as the "Puppy Dog Eyes Technique."

Matilda cursed Tiffa's cuteness but fell to it's compelling power all the same.

_**-ooo-**_

Louise stared up at the hanging body of Pope Vittorio with a curious expression, one halfway between amusement and disgust.

And it was so like her current self to make as black a joke as possible. "I've heard of soap on a rope, but pope on a rope is a new one."

Oni turned to her, a blank look on his face.

"What?" Louise shrugged. "It can't be all fun and games when people start hanging themselves... and you had a hand in that by the way. What have I told you about putting hallucinogens in peoples food?"

"All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a-"

Louise and Oni glanced over at Julio who stood in the center of the circular room staring at the tile floor, eyes wide and muttering to himself in a low monotone.

"All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a-"

"O...kay" Louise blinked. "Just how much did you give him?

"Ah...Galo."

Louise froze. "A _Gallon!?_"

Oni nodded solemnly. "Ah leta galo... Oota Moo Jah"

A shiver went up Louise's spine. "Alright let's just leave him to his-"

"LOUISE!"

Said mage jumped as Julio got within her personal space.

Staring wide eyed, Julio opened his mouth. "Louise, I need you to tell me that I can leave the throne room if I want to."

Leaning back and looking at the man as if her were crazy she tried to assure him. "Julio you can leave the throne room if you-"

"BITCH DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Julio screamed, before slumping and staring at the floor again. "All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a circle. All these squares make a-"

"..." Louise backed away slowly, closing the door to the throne room behind her.

_**-ooo-**_

"Why am I doing this again?" Ari asked, with a twitch of his brow, the elf staring at a map of Halkeginia and different spots that signified large deposits of windstones.

"Because that Louise girl made nice with the elven nations and proved that most humans aren't actually uncivilized savages." His wife, Luctiana pointed out. "She also made friends with that cute little spirit of hers, she cant be all that bad if the little guy likes her that much.

"You just like her because she let you ride on that void dragon before she brained it with that giant hammer of hers." Her husband grouched. "Where the hell did she pull that thing from anyway?"

"Hammer space. " Luctiana pointed out cheekily, the fabric of the fourth wall rippling for but a moment. "Though that makes about as much sense to you as it does me."

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with, we have a lot of work to do to make sure this continent doesn't end up like that floating country of theirs. Albion, I believe the name was."

"Yay, do we get to blow things up?" Luctiana asked, almost giddy.

Ari stared at his wife for several long seconds before sighing. "That girl has rubbed off on you in all the wrong ways."

_**-ooo-**_

Louise sighed as she stared up at the ceiling of the Des Orniers mansion; Her "gift" for saving the country and continent on multiple occasions. She was also Henrietta's adopted sister and royalty, which was a rather novel experience. "Defeat the bad guys?" She muttered to her familiar.

Oni, who was sitting above Louise on her pillow, gave her a thumbs up.

"Check." Louise nodded. "Saved the day, country, continent or any variation of the three?"

Another thumb joined the first.

"Check." Louise again nodded. "I know this is usually reserved for men but... Get the girl?"

Oni's thumbs turned sideways, pointing to either side of Louise where Tiffania and Siesta were sound asleep, their tummy's already bulging slightly from the life they held.

"Double check."

"Ahem..." Louise sat up and looked to either side of her two lovers and found Kirche and Tabitha laying on her bed.

"Tabitha want's to know why we're here." Kirche cleared her throat. "And also why she didn't show up in this story."

"Ahum." All eyes turned to Oni. "Michy Mi." He said simply.

"He has a point." Louise shrugged. "He is a spirit of mischief and it IS his story."

"Hmm..." Tabitha cleared her throat.

Kirche's ears perked up. "Tabitha also wants to know why it feels like naughty things were done to her and why the last several hours are a blank."

"Welcome to my world." Louise replied happily. "I suffered from that too, love potion gone wrong probably."

"Hmm..."

"Tabitha wants you to know that she hates love potions now and would like to borrow your wine cellar for a few hours to hopefully forget about you ever telling her that." Kirche frowned. "And she would also like you to know that if she gets pregnant from this that you better take responsibility."

"Can do." Louise responded in a far too chipper manner. "Come back if the alcohol doesn't work, I don't mind going for broke and you look like you could unwind some."

"Hnn..." Tabitha grunted the affirmative, and would likely do so, long after she drank enough alcohol to put a flight of dragons under the table.

Louise and Kirche watched Tabitha leave, watching as the door closed behind her. Kirche then turned to Louise, a small perverted leer on her face. "What's this about going for broke I hear? Oh, woe is me? I seem to have a blank in my memory as well and I have too high an alcohol tolerance to drown it in, oh what am I to do?"

"Hey Chicka Bum Bum!"

Louise turned to Oni, an eyebrow raised. "Oni, what did I tell you about that?"

He then proceeded to remove Kirche's shirt via firstborn magic.

"Perverted little bastard isn't he?" Kirche grinned.

Louise rolled her eyes. "He's a spirit of mischief." As if that explained things. "And you don't know the half of it."

With a warcry, Oni launched himself into Kirche's bra, disappearing once again into the Cleavage Zone.

"But I suppose you're going to find out..." Louise then mimicked her Familiar's antics and tackled her once rival off the bed and proceeded to do unmentionable things to her.

Oni clawed his way out from under Kirche's panties and waved at the fourth wall, a wide grin on his face. "That's all folks!" Before turning and hoping back into the action.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Yeah... that happened. **_

_**Lesbians. Lesbians everywhere.**_

_**And don't think too hard on how Siesta and Tiffa got pregnant, it will only hurt your brain.**_

_**In case you're wondering, Oni is actually based on Onion-tou, a web based emoticon character who has a lot of popularity on deviantart. As for the personality... well I kind of used the Onion-tou emoticons as a basis for his personality, then mixed him with a bit of Boonta from Gurren Lagann and the Rabbits from the Rayman franchise. Then, instead of giving him voidhaxx, I made him a spirit THEN connected him to Louise THROUGH Voidhaxx. Imagine a near infinite tap of energy that Louise can draw from through the Heart of God runes. I mean spirits are practically IMMORTAL, their life energy is near infinite.**_

_**Also, quite a few references throughout this thing, can you name them all?**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Well alright then, this came out a bit quicker than I imagined it would. First off, this is a SI chapter. Mainly because I wanted to do a more realistic version of a self insert's first reactions to Louise's noble bullshit. That is to say, "What would happen if Louise summoned someone who knew of the events about to happen and didn't particularly like being her familiar." **_

_** Because frankly. If I ended up in the world of Zero no Tsukaima,I personally wouldn't want a damn thing to do with it. I'd want to go home. Fuck being a hero, that only gets you shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, executed or any variation thereof. Especially in that world where we have to deal with, in order; 1. A thief who can summon a 60 foot tall stone behemoth 2. A Civil war that kills off the prince, king and all their soldiers. 3. An invasion fleet that can scoff at 10,000 soldiers and keep going. 4. An army of 70,000 soldiers defending their homes. 5. A completely batshit insane monarch who wants to destroy the world because he want's to feel things. 6. A -to a lesser extent- similarly batshit insane pope who thinks massacring his own people, much less another race -more advanced and powerful mind you- will somehow save the continent, and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so. Let's not point out all the corruption, trigger happy nobles and the fact that the entire continent could be ripped from it's foundations at any point by the giant windstone deposits underneath Halkeginia. Yeah, this world kind of sucks for the main characters and seeing as I've just been summoned in Saito's position... well you can see where I'm going with this.**_

_**This will not be lighthearted this chapter, in fact, I think this can be a near rape trigger if you want to get right down to it. So I'm warning you here and in the warnings section below.**_

_**Warnings: Possible trigger (No I don't actually rape her but I'm warning people because it might bring up uncomfortable emotions) Language.**_

_**Type:Snippit (This one is somewhat short because it only covers the very first bedroom scene where Louise sends off the gandalfr to do laundry. If I were in Saito's position... yeah I could see myself reacting like this. I'd rather lash out then try and be sneaky. I'd rather Louise fear me at first then try and win any brownie points with her, because quite frankly she is a bitch in the first three or so seasons of the anime and about half the LN's.  
**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Zero no Tsukaima, I do however own myself... at least I think I do, with the gubmint the way it is nowadays no one can say if they own themselves anymore :/**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 2:Potential Hazard's**_

"Well isn't this just the textbook fucking definition of classy?" I mumbled to myself, eyes following my new 'Master' to her bedroom.

This was so surreal... one minute I'm kicking back, relaxing in my room. Next minute I find myself in a open field covered in smoke and dust while my ears are ringing from the explosion that sent both into the air. Then the dust clears and I realize something...

I'm not in fucking Kansas anymore...

There are times in your life where sometimes you just have to take things at face value. Now was one of those times. I felt sore, I felt the ache in my bones from the percussion of the explosion and the searing agony as those familiar runes were branded into my hand. I was less of a bitch than Saito though, so I held on -barely- to consciousness. As it stood, the ache in my hand was a stark reminder that this _'wasn't'_ a dream, vivid or otherwise. I'd had vivid dreams before, ones that gave the illusion of pain, that inspired fear and sent that little tingle through your spine.

This was on a level of it's own.

Therefore, it had to be real. Pinching myself again proved that pain was the rule rather than the exception, something that no dream could match. Not only that, everything was too well defined, too realistic in it's movements and the characters responded to outside stimuli happening independent of myself after I created the problem. I had once passed a maid, who smiled at me. I smiled back which had caused my little 'master' to scowl at me, clearly unamused by my familiarity with a woman other than herself. This was later compounded by another student mentioning Louise's dour mood, something that was completely removed from the previous scene, which shouldn't have been possible if this were indeed a dream.

So if this wasn't a dream... If this was real life and I had just found myself stuck in the world of Zero no Tsukaima then... what?

I knew the world of Familiar of Zero pretty well, having read the Light Novels, watched the anime, read an inordinate amount of fanfiction and... well the doujins did have some interesting ideas when it came to the resident mages sexual habits...

Er... moving on... I guess being able to speak her language _did_ sort of rationalize the need for me to piss her off enough to have her cast the silence spell on me, thereby exploding me in the process. Let's test that theory. Yappity yap yap yap yap yap.

_**BOOOM**_

Yeeep that hurt...

"Ow, motherfucker!" I growled rubbing the tenderized arm that had blocked most of the explosion, it wasn't wounded or anything but there was probably going to be a large bruise there come tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

It was then I felt the sobering thought cross my mind. Tomorrow... if this wasn't a dream, then that means that every tomorrow until I found a way back home would be devoted to protecting this little brat and making sure this entire world didn't go tits up. Fouquet, Wardes, Reconquista, Joseph and Sheffield, Vittorio and Julio, The Elven Nations. So many enemies, all to protect one small, near helpless girl...

I wanted to go back home... I wanted to see my family, my friends, to do what I always did, day in and day out. Having your daily routine ripped away from you was jarring, being enslaved by a seventeen year old tsundere midget even moreso. But there was that small part of me... that small part that wanted adventure, that looked at the hero's and villains, the stories and epics of people just like me; the average man, the guy who only has a little bit of cleverness and an exceptionally large pair of balls to his name, yet is able to do so much.

But then, that little nagging doubt in the back of my mind came to the forefront. 'You're not a hero, you're a nobody. You don't have courage, you don't have strength, you're worthless.' Normally I would have given into those doubts, given in to the situation that was so far beyond my control that I normally would have just sat in a corner and cried. I wasn't courageous, in fact I went out of my way to avoid trouble if I could help it; I was clever like that. But cleverness wouldn't help me here, not when I was surrounded by people who could give physics the middle finger with the flick of a stick. ...And my mistress was currently one of the weakest, both in will and actual ability of said stick flickers. So there is no way in hell that she can help me if I get into trouble...

I looked down at the runes on my hands; Gandalfr. These would help, I suppose. If I could find a decent sword I could probably hold my own against everything short of a trained and determined line mage on up... but that wasn't a guarantee. I was in the middle of a mine field with nothing but a long stick to poke around with and that mental image did not comfort me at all.

"Familiar! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

And then there was Louise. "I understood that?" I spoke, mimicking surprise at the fact I could finally hear her words in my own language rather than the pseudo french that she normally spoke in.

In response she grit her teeth, I could see the anger in her eyes. Not at me but at herself. "That was supposed to be a silencing spell." She responded.

I tuned out most of what she said after that because I honestly didn't care at this point, in fact there was really only two or three points in the story that actually had to happen to progress events in the same direction, everything else was independent of Louise and Saito.

Unless I changed things...

I fought the urge to snap taut at that. Change things... now there was a novel idea. I'd seen it before in fanfiction and doujins, taking established canon and fooling with it until you got what you wanted... except this wasn't fanfiction and I wasn't a hero protagonist.

Still, the thought did pique my interest. I turned to speak with Louise and found, to my irritation that the next scene had started to play out and the girl was striping naked in front of me, completely ignoring the fact that I was here, that a guy was practically ogling her bare ass right now. Actually... come to think of it, I could use this...

"Ack." I turned away from Louise. "Dammit woman, why the hell are you stripping naked?" Yes, that's it, lay the groundwork, lead her along a familiar path before you start changing things.

"What do you mean?" She turned, in all her naked glory to address me. "You're my familiar, It isn't any different from me changing in front of a dog or cat.

I fought down the urge to throttle the little brat, barely.

"I am getting ready for bed, familiar." She tossed her panties in my face and threw on a night gown. "I expect my clothes to be washed by the morning!"

And here it was. I had read many a fic or doujin that began this same way, something that would no doubt change the dynamic between us for the duration of my stay. Whether good or bad, Louise needed to understand both of our places in this relationship. And the only way to do that to this snobby, self entitled little brat with a superiority complex threatening to break into godly territory? Fear... pure, unadulterated fear.

Right now she considered me a dog, something to leash and beat into submission. Well, that was going to change. I was going to show her that a beaten dog will show it's fangs and bite the hand that feeds it. I would show her that I was something more than she could push around and in doing so maybe I could actually help her with her magic, become the mentor figure she actually needed.

While I didn't particularly care for tiny girls like her, I didn't mind them either, so it wasn't hard to fake desire, especially after that peep show earlier.

Getting to my feet far quieter than what normally would be expected of a man of my stature, I made my way quietly over to Louise who had just laid down in bed and closed her eyes.

Now that she was laying on something for scale, you could really see how tiny she was, how light she was.

I used that to my advantage as I picked her up and tossed her.

With a squawk Louise hit the floor and slid until she bumped into the edge of her dresser. She was up in a flash and had her wand in her hand. I was too close, too far within her guard for her to get off an incantation and so flinched back when I slapped the thing out of her hand. She watched it with horror as it flew across the room and landed under the bed, out of reach.

That horror turned to indignant -and in my opinion, suicidal- rage as she turned on me. "Familiar, how DARE you strike your master, you disgraceful dog! I'll have you-hrmph." Her eyes flew wide again as I wrapped my hand over her mouth and slammed her into a wall. With a dull thump her head hit the cold castle stone and stunned her for a moment, more than enough time to pin her hands above her and lift her up off the floor. Stepping in, I pinned her hips to the wall with my stomach and rested most of her featherlight weight on it.

_'There, now to explain to this brat why you don't treat people like animals.'_

As her eyes stopped spinning I pulled my pocket knife out and flicked it open. Louise flinched at the click, freezing in wide eyed horror as the pale blue and red light of the twin moons glinted off the sharp metal.

When I felt her still I cleared my throat. "Ok, two things before I start talking. One, you will not talk until I say otherwise." A slight whimper and a nod, good. "Two, do not attempt to fight back and I will not do anything to you, you are in this position right now because it is the only way you will listen, understand?" Another nod. "Good."

I could practically smell the fear on Louise as I slowly caressed the side of her face with my knife. God I felt sick doing that but I couldn't stop the charade now or I'd lose all credibility.

"Alright. Now, first off, this whole 'familiar' thing." I waved the knife around, pointing at the room in general. "That has to stop." She attempted to open her mouth and yell at me but the knife found itself pressed against her throat and she shut up. "I have a name and 'familiar' isn't it. I will tell you my name at the end of this little discussion IF I find that you deserve to know but that hinges on how this conversation goes, so don't fuck up ok?" Another nod, this one filled with tears, ugh, I felt like a monster doing this to something so cute, like I kicked a fluffy little puppy...

"Second, I don't know where you get off forcing me into servitude like this, but I don't appreciate it." Again she attempted to speak and again she felt the cold kiss of steel on her neck. "Ah, see!? This is why the manhandling and knife are required." I nodded over at the bed. "Where I come from, mages can't do anything without their foci. If your system is anything like mine then right now you're pretty much helpless, except for perhaps a few cantrips? Or maybe not even that, correct?"

She hesitated but the knife pressed further into her throat and she nodded frantically. "Perfect!" I responded in a rather too chipper manner, which caused a mewl of fright to come from Louise. "See Louise, I come from a place far removed from this land. A place where everyone has equal rights! There is no nobility and the ruling class isn't so much a class as a bunch of elected officials, elected BY the people, FOR the people. If our president, the defacto ruler and or his underlings do not live up to expectations they can and most likely will be removed from office. They are not above the law, which was laid down on our countries founding in our founding document that gave each and every citizen of the country equal rights, equal freedoms."

A frown marred my face as I got within inches of hers. "So imagine my surprise when I find myself in a land where the upper class rules over the lower class like masters and slaves; a caste system as it were. Now, Imagine my further surprise when I find _myself_ as a _slave_ to an annoying, pink haired little witch who doesn't even have the decency to ask for my name, who doesn't treat me like a human being and instead calls me a dog at the slightest provocation." Here I looked over to the pile of hay that I was expected to sleep on, I turned back to the girl and raised an eyebrow. "I can understand that you were expecting an animal, the other familiars of those spoiled brats during whatever ritual you were performing looked nice and all but I am NOT an animal and I WILL NOT be treated like one. I AM however, willing to be your 'partner' seeing as I have no idea where I am, I cant exactly run off and leave you now can I?"

A blossom of hope filled her eyes, a hope I crushed brutally. "That!" I growled. "Doesn't mean I cant kill you, bloodlessly I might add, hide your body in an abandoned part of this castle and sneak out to the nearest town. There I can steal a map and be in a different country within a week or two, long before your body will EVER be discovered." I watched that glimmer of hope vanish and I felt an almost sick sense of pleasure from that... ok, this is getting bad I really need to stop this soon. "It is not hard to live off the land, people have been doing that for thousands of years and now is no different."

I pushed her a little harder against the wall. "You need to understand this Louise, without that little stick of yours-" I nudged my head in the general direction of the bed. "-There is nothing between us but a pair of pants and a very, VERY thin nightgown. I can think of quite a few things that I can do to you right now-" I applied more pressure causing her to cry out in discomfort. "-None of them pleasant and only a few of them painless. If I wasn't so honorable I would be taking advantage of you right now, a fact you should have considered before you stripped nude in front of me like I didn't matter."

I pulled back slightly, releasing the pressure. "Superiority only matters when you actively have power over that which you're trying to control. Unfortunately for you and every other human on the planet, that is NEVER." I glared at her then, a glare I had inherited from my father with his heavy brow, deep set, dark circled and beady eyes; in the dim light I looked absolutely menacing. "All humans need food and rest, it only takes a single knife across the throat in the dead of night or fast acting poison in an evening meal to equalize everyone."

She was crying now, sobs threatening to break free from her chest. Good, now to beat in the final nail of this proverbial coffin. "And finally, did you ever consider WHO you KIDNAPPED? Huh?" A deep inhale came from the girl then, as if she were frightened that she had stole away some foreign noble. I wasn't of course, but that didn't mean she knew that. "Did you ever consider that I had my own duties? Someone I was taking care of back home? A sickly grandmother and an overworked mother to take care of and assist respectively?"

And THERE was the magical and oh so sweet horror. I'd finally gotten through to her that what she had done was wrong and needed to be fixed. "Yes, I have family. A family who actively requires my help to live as well as we do. And without that... I don't even want to know how they feel right now. For all they know I could have been murdered or ran off to commit suicide or something." I grit my teeth in anger. "Do you know how much that hurts me? Huh? Do you know how much I care for my family's well being? I'd gladly DIE for them if it meant they could be happy, and right now I can't do a DAMN THING but STAND HERE and wallow in futile anger!"

I released her and she fell to the floor, numb. "And you! You have the AUDACITY to think yourself my master?" I scowled at her then, this little ruse turning far more serious than I intended. "Newsflash kid, if I had a way back home right now I wouldn't even hesitate." There... I knew I had taken it too far, I pushed too hard when she started sobbing, breath coming out in dry heaves that threatened to bring up what was in her stomach

It was then that I realized just how far gone Louise was... And this failure, this complete rejection by what was supposed to be her triumph had broken her, the fragile steel that her mother had forged cracking under the stress.

Good.

I wasn't a monster but right now I felt like one as I enjoyed watching this girl crumble. And no, it wasn't for the pleasure of the act, but the knowledge that there was no where to go but up for her.

I reached out to her then, pulling her crying body into me, the tiny girl so far gone that she didn't even put up any resistance as she was practically engulfed by my much larger body. It was almost funny that she was nearly seventeen when she looked barely into her teenage years. My humor at Louise's tiny body only lasted as long as it took me to remove her hair from her face and see the absolute agony there.

I laid her head on my shoulder, rubbing and cooing like a protective older brother. "Shh, it's alright." I mumbled in quiet whispers. The damage was done, now to begin the process of picking the pieces back up and reforging a blade that was both flexible AND strong. "I was truthful when I said I would go back home if given a chance, Louise but right now I don't have a way home and you are my only clue back. I won't say that I like this, because I don't... but I WILL be your 'partner' until that time." I had to stress that fact.

The girl froze in my arms, she looked up at me with bloodshot eyes and her lower lip quivered. "Y-you would help me?" Her voice was filled with so much self loathing it actually hurt. "A failure like me? Someone who cant cast a spell without blowing something up, a ZERO! I can't even control my own damn familiar!" It was then that she slumped boneless into my arms, too tired to even cry at that point.

Oh yeah, serious self esteem issues... better make some bullshit up to fix that. "Louise." I began. "Where I come from I am a scholar, knowledgeable in my peoples magic." Hey, sufficiently advanced science is no different from magic and we practically curb stomp this entire continent in every technological way possible. "Where I come from, we use a magic called science to take our knowledge of the natural world and bend it to our will. With our knowledge we've done things that would boggle the mind; built buildings that stand above the clouds in their height, tools that can harvest thousands of pounds of crops in minutes, airships that can travel hundreds of miles in an hour, weapons... that can destroy a city in moments, killing hundreds of thousands with a thought."

I could feel the girl shivering in my grasp as I explained the wonders of the modern age, it must have sounded like a fairy tale to the girl, or perhaps a nightmare as my last example caused her to still.

"Yes, we've done many things both grand and horrible in the name of science. I however, am more of an optimist when it comes to those kinds of things." I rubbed the back of neck uncomfortably. "Unfortunatly, without the proper materials, my tools and a number of hands to help, I am mostly incapable of my people's brand of magic but that doesn't mean I can't reveal insights about your own." I could practically feel the desperate hope coming from her, at this point she was grasping at straws. "You mentioned earlier that all your spells end in explosions, correct?" A small nod, barely perceptible but it was there. "Louise, I know this may sound strange but one of the most revolutionary things built by my people's magic uses tiny explosions to power our most powerful creations. That building? It was built with tools that are powered by tiny explosions. That thing that harvests crops? Those airships? Powered by tiny explosions.

My voice turned grim for a moment. "That weapon? ...It is the largest explosion that my people can create, comparable to that of a small volcano blowing up. The most powerful of these weapons that was ever tested destroyed everything within thirty-five miles in a giant circle with only the initial explosion, the subsequent pressure wave destroyed wooden buildings and ripped the roofs off of stone ones four times that distance away. To put that into perspective, a sturdy horse rode all day at a walking pace can cover on average thirty to forty miles."

A shudder went up the girls spine at the sheer destructive capacity of such an explosion, starting at her shoulders and going all the way down to her toes.

"And beyond that." I spoke solemnly. "There were even windows in other countries hundreds of miles away that were broken from the lingering shockwave..." I rubbed the girl's back slowly with calm, measured strokes to relax her. "THAT is the power of explosions Louise. My people can and have changed the landscape with explosions, putting mountains under heel and digging holes that could swallow an entire city just to get at the minerals and resources buried underneath. And that knowledge of explosions is going to be put to work figuring out the best way to make yours as varied and unique as possible. Just because you're limited to explosions doesn't mean you cant find a thousand and one uses for them."

Louise looked up at me with hopeful eyes. "Famili-er?" She stopped, her eyes shifted to the side, likely thinking of something else to say than that rather informal and tacky title.

I smiled. "It's Hazard, Therun Hazard." Her brows scrunched at the name, as if trying to pronounce the strange name. "It's a weird name, I know but it's what I was given and I'm not going to hate on it."_**(*)**_

Joy filled Louise's face as she realized I had kept my promise of telling her my name, and that she hadn't screwed up enough to where I would abandon her.

It was at that point I noticed the girls eyes dropping, likely exhausted from the ordeal and slowly slipping away into unconsciousness. I stood up slowly, cradling Louise in my arms as I placed her in bed, pulling the covers over her and wishing her a good night. Not long after the girls breathing evened out and I knew I didn't have to worry about her not falling asleep.

With a relieved sigh I walked across the room to where I had dropped my duffle bag. I was lucky that the door to the closet that I kept this thing in was open or my foot likely wouldn't have hooked the strap when I fell through the portal. Seeing as this was my hunting bag I found several things that I knew would make my life infinitely easier for at least a little while; a dozen or so changes of clothing - including some forest camo-, survival knife, my toiletries, a fairly extensive med-kit -just because I avoided trouble didn't mean trouble always avoided me- a few cans of food, a couple bottles of water, a wind up radio, wind up flashlight, and finally a five piece PVC take down bow and around a half dozen take down arrows with an assortment of arrowheads to play with.

I knew for a fact that I was going to be using that bow to practice with my runes and aside from the survival knife and my little pocket knife I didn't have much in the ways of protection. I'd manage somehow I suppose, with luck I could figure out a way to get Colbert to make me something a bit more shooty and a little less archer-y. Shrugging, I stuffed all but a t-shirt, night pants, a rag from one of the side pockets and a bottle of water back into the bag before stripping out of my day clothes. With the water and rag I washed most of the dust off and then slipped into the night clothing. I stowed away the rest of my things before walking over to the bed. I knew I was probably pressing my luck with this but dammit I wasn't sleeping on a bunch of itchy hay. Been there, done that; fuck no!

And I sure as hell wasn't sleeping on the cold stone floor. So, bed it was, and if Louise didn't like that... well, I suppose I'd burn that bridge when I crossed it. Maybe I could get her to rope in some maids, perhaps Siesta and get me a matress up here to sleep on.

And with those thoughts I drifted off, vaguely feeling Louise cuddle up to me in her sleep. Oh, now that was going to be an interesting morning; while drifting off to blissful unconsciousness.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Yep, just went there. I don't know if this counts as "Breaking Louise" or "Fixing her" perhaps both. **_

_**This was an idea I had for a "somewhat realistic" self insert reaction to Louise's initial bitchyness and yes this would probably be one of several things I'd try to get Louise to respect and fear me. I mean, Louise acts like she's freaking God to Saito, that he should wait on her hand and foot and if he so much as sneezes in the direction of a more well endowed women, she lays the smack down on his ass.**_

_**Also I feel rather clever for the chapter title... tee hee**_

_**I don't know about you, but getting whipped is not a pleasant experience, I had enough of that as a child thank you very much and if some tsundere midget thinks she can treat me like a child then she's in for a rude awakening. Like it's mentioned above a mage without their wand is about as threatening as any other human. I think the only mages who could stand up in a fist fight would be the actual military types like Colbert and Karin, the rest of them would probably go down like glass chins.**_

_**As for the creeper vibes about half way through Louise getting pinned to that wall... well, use what you got to threaten a dangerous opponent. Louise can blow holes in castle walls when she's unskilled with her magic, imagine what she can do to a person... So, you make damn sure you put the fear of God in them, something any good drill sergeant knows from experience... But, seeing as this is Louise we're talking about here and not a soldier, my character saw fit to give her a little example why you shouldn't sell yourself short. Everyone has their niche, it's just finding it that's the issue.**_

_**(*) I'd like to point out that I'm terrible with names. half my penname and an anagram of a silly nickname I used to be known as, a good name does not make... maybe... Your Mileage May Vary.**_

_**And on a side note that PVC takedown bow is actually a thing. Look up backyardbowyer on Youtube, he's got a bunch of awesome PVC bow stuff.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ok I will admit that I got this idea from "No Need for Halkeginian Logic by Midnakdak" Except in this story Louise summons something of an OC and instead of using Void Hax, or some other overt magical power from skyrim or some other high fantasy verse, she instead uses the normally supplementary power of potions and enchantment from Skyrim to pimp out in a way that would make her just as deadly if not moreso than her canon counterpart.**_

_**Also holy fuck! This is by far the LARGEST single chapter I have EVER written. Over 21 THOUSAND words!**_

_**But let's not gild the lily any longer, you and I both know why you're here.**_

_**Warnings: Violence, Language, suggestive themes.**_

_**Type:Abridgelet**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Familiar of Zero or the Elder Scrolls series**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 3: Supplementrio Magicka.**_

Louise, to put it quite simply, was flabbergasted. Why? You may ask? Well, it might have something to do with the undoubtedly _evil_ looking pedestal that she had summoned. In all honestly it looked like an alter to some heathen god, what with the human skull crowning it, the myriad of apothecary tools, reagents and a large bag filled with what appeared to be purple gemstones that sparkled with an inner light.

It was at that point that her peers made themselves known.

"Oh, this makes what you said sooo worth it Louise, you summoned a bunch of useless junk!" That'd be Kirche, damn that stupid big breasted woman!

"Heh, a Zero is still just a Zero." And that was Malicorn, the fat bastard.

Louise tuned out the rest of the jeers that would normally be associated with her many failures as she slowly approached the alter, she didn't even bother asking Colbert for a do-over, such was the level of her failure. She would have given up then, fell to the ground and simply allowed fate to continue it's cruel mockery of her but something stopped her... something made her walk closer to the alter and pick up the book resting on it's surface. A book meant knowledge and maybe, just maybe there was something inside this book that would help her with her magic. She could only hope.

That's when the skull atop the pedestal creaked to life, eye sockets filled with a green glowing light; her detractors stopped laughing almost immediately, replaced with a cold silence as they looked upon what they could only label as necromancy, a blasphemy of Brimmer himself.

At least until it started speaking...

"Thank you for purchasing the Miscellaneous Magicka Starter Set by Blam Co. Made for beginners and Intermediate students of all ages." The Skull spoke in a rather cultured voice though it's slow drawl sounded far more bored than a skull rightfully should be. "Included is one(1) Guidance Skull of Adept level whom will guide you through the basics and beyond. One(1) copy of 'An Intermediate guide to all things Alchemy and Enchantment. By Jethor Melkin - Mage of the Missing Marbles. One(1) Adept Apothecary's set, filled with all you need to start brewing. One(1) Standard issue combined Alchemy and Enchantment table; a better bang for the buck of the frugal Mage. One(1) Steel Dagger enchanted with Soul Trap to power all your Soul Gem needs. And three hundred(300) Soul Gems; Fifty(50) Petty, Fifty(50) Lesser, one-hundred-and-fifty(150) Common, Thirty-five(35) Greater, and fifteen(15) Grand."

Many of the students were scratching their heads at that rather clinical break down of what would normally be a treasured work station for any dedicated apothecary or water mage. The fact that it sounded like some purchase pitch didn't help either.

The skulls voice rose a bit, sounding rather proud. "We here at Blam Co. pride ourselves on the quality of our products. If there are any issues or if you are not one hundred percent satisfied with your purchase in the first thirty(30) days, please contact the nearest Blam Co. manufacturer for warranty information or send it back for a full refund. All returns subject to approval by Blam Co. and it's affiliates."

The skull's voice lowered several octaves and sped up to where it was hard to understand the thing "Blam Co is not responsible for any loss of life, limb, soul or property that may come from use of the Miscellaneous Magicka Starter Set, follow all safety instructions in the Guide and please for the love of the Nine don't blow yourself up."

After that rather... unorthodox introduction of what this thing was... Louise could only look at the book in her hands as if it was the grace of Brimmer himself. An Alchemy AND Enchantment set, for intermediate users. Normally something like this would be in the realms of a water mage, and even if it wasn't a dragon or manticore, it was still a pointer to her element and something clearly magical if that "Guidance Skull" was to be believed.

Speaking of which. A sharp click was heard and Louise glanced up at the skull to see that the green light's in the things eyes had brightened somewhat and was looking around with an intelligence that would normally be attributed with a human.

Then it spoke again.

"And just were in the gates of Oblivion am I now? Oh looky looky, a bunch a snot nosed brats, especially tubby back there. Wonder if he caught the wrong end of a blizzard spell?" Ok, the rather cultured voice that the skull had used previously was now replaced with a much younger, much coarser voice, And this one appeared to like it's snark served dry.

"It would be best if you completed the ritual, Ms. Valliere." That was Colbert, the Fire instructor presiding over the ritual.

Louise approached the table and the skull by extension. The Skull's green eyes landed on her and Louise tried to suppress a shiver.

"Oh?" The eyes shifted to the book in the girls hand. "You must be my new owner?" A scowl seemed to form on it's expressionless face, though it was rather hard to tell without any identifying features. "Bah, I'm stuck with some little brat for the rest of her life... great, just great." A sigh escaped the skull, though it had no lungs to do so, more magic Louise supposed, though she didn't take kindly to the skulls temperament, particularly that 'brat' comment.

"My _name_ Is Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, you bodiless bone head."

"Oh?" The skull seemed surprised. "And she's a high and mighty type too, fan-fucking-tastic, just what I needed, more noblesse to ruin my afterlife, not like I _hate_ having my soul stuffed into a skull or anything." It replied sarcastically, trailing off into angry muttering. "And all because I mouthed off to one of the Conjuration professors at the academy who thought it funny to 'preserve' my skills for the younger generations, old bearded bastard..."

A shiver went up Louise's spine at that. This skull was very clearly necromancy, which was highly illegal and a blasphemy to the Brimeric faith. Though, a certain thought did come to mind. It was only the practice of Necromancy that was blasphemy. The use of Necromantic artifacts to perform non-necromantic magic, while highly frowned upon, was not necessarily bad. And it did very clearly state that this was a "Guidance Skull." Something meant to guide a student through the given material, which was not necromantic in origin.

So she should be fine... probably...

"Alright fine, I guess I'll be your familiar on TOP of being your guidance skull, I guess first name basis will do? Alright then, the names Trafalgar, Trafalgar Law... No relation to any medics or pirates or pirate medics."

Louise gave the skull a funny look before she finished the ritual by saying the magic words that you've all heard a million times already, then kissed, rather reluctantly I might add, the skulls forehead.

The skull made several retching sounds as Louise kissed him. "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy but could you back the fuck off you crazy lady? Does personal space mean nothing to you?"

Louise scowled at the skulls rude words but did so as the contract started forming.

"Hey, does something smell like burning hair... I mean seriously *Sniff Sniff* Smells like someone set fire to a frost troll's backside." The eyes trailed up as smoke started blocking it's vision. "Oh... that's me. Well, that girl at that bar I used to visit always did say I was smokin hot."

It was at that point that Louise could do nothing but facepalm. She knew it was going to be a loooooong day.

_**-ooo-**_

"Alright, enough of this stupidity... If you're willing to listen then I'll be willing to make you a deal."

Normally, one would not trust that kind of sentence coming from a human, doubly so for a talking skull animated by the soul of a deceased mage.

Louise however, was contemplating it. Why? Because, in the first hour of reading the Guide, she had already made several lesser healing potions with the ingredients given. Sure, some of the ingredients were exotic and likely impossible to find on the continent of Halkeginia but the guide had listed many more mundane substitutes that would work nearly as well.

Trafalgar had shown her how to enchant things, while briefly stating that to learn other enchantments you would have to destroy an artifact already enchanted with said enchantment, his words sounding very much rehearsed and probably a time honored tradition. The skull then later labeled this as "Bullshit" and proceeded to tell her that they -that is to say the actual masters of Enchantment- spread that cockamamie around so that novices of Enchantment both academic and practical wouldn't end up blowing themselves up using an enchantment that they couldn't understand without a skilled Enchanter teaching them. Absorbing an enchantment at an Enchanting table was only a simpler way of doing it without actually risking your life.

Suitably and ironically disenchanted with the time honored rules of her newly found object of study, her first enchantment was to create a bag of holding, with which she could then store the entirety of her set with little difficulty. Sure it had taken the death of a chicken or two from the school kitchens but if such was the price for greatness then so be it.

She was still a tad bit leery about the actual subjugation of a soul in a soul gem, though once it was explained that only extremely rare black soul gems could actually imprison a human soul, she had become slightly more comfortable with it. And since it was only animal souls that were used in the enchantment of an item, rather than necromantic rituals it made her even more comfortable with it.

And, from the way it was explained to her, it wasn't so much the "souls' as the 'Aether' that was left behind BY the souls that was being contained. Normally you couldn't trap a complete human soul without extremely powerful and forbidden necromantic magic's, it just so happened that Trafalgar had pissed off a rather powerful Conjurer that dabbled heavily in the subject in secret and thought it amusing to stick him in one of the normally non-necromantic Guidance Skulls, which for the most part were simply animated automata filled with a casters knowledge on the subject they wanted the skull to teach, the skull aesthetic was merely to allow the construct to speak, rather than some other form of communication.

So her Enchanting things still wasn't blasphemy!

Denial was a wonderful thing, no?

"I'm listening." Louise stared down the end of her nose at the skull. If a book could teach her in short order to make potions that could heal wounds like a square class water mage and thirty minutes of theory could create a bag that could give theoretical magic's the finger then what could an _Adept_ in the field teach her when fully motivated?

The skulls' demeanor brightened noticeably. "Ok, I don't really like you and you damn sure don't like me by now but I'm willing to put differences aside in teaching you how to be a complete and total badass in Alchemy and Enchanting. The cost? You'll have to amuse me."

Louise frowned. "Amuse you?"

"Yeah, amuse me." The Skull responded. "I've been trapped in this hunk of calcium for the better part of four decades with nothing to look at but a bunch of old codgers enchanting useless crap and young brats who end up blowing themselves up when they mix the wrong ingredients. It's fucking sad; In my life I was a prodigy! Fuck Adept, I was a veritable master of two of the three Supplementrio Magicka. If I hadn't of pissed off a Master level conjurer I'd probably be a professor by now if not greater... but I digress. All I ask is that you amuse me, cause havoc, create chaos. You have an unlimited resource in your hands right now that can create all sorts of amusement! All I ask is that and I shall teach you all the loop holes, all the shortcuts to make this branch of magic your bitch."

Louise's expression soured somewhat at the crass language of her familiar, but that didn't stop her from contemplating the offer. It was an interesting idea, trading entertainment for knowledge, and for once Louise was actively interested. She had always despised her peers for their casual cruelty; the sneers and jeers that made her school life almost unbearable.

After another minute of contemplation, Louise had finally made up her mind. "Alright, I accept. " It was to be expected after all, she _would_ get her revenge on the people who had made her life hell for the last year, however petty it was. It would be a reckoning like no other!

"Excellent! The skull seemed to grin evilly. "The first order of business is to get back at that big breasted bimbo and that fat snotty kid that insulted you, those uppity fools always make the best targets."

"Kirche and Malicorne?"

"Yes yes. We can take care of the rest of them afterwords." The skull would have waved dismissively if it had hands to do so. "Let me show you a couple of potions I developed myself, all you need is a bit of-"

The rest of his words were cut off with conspiratorial whispers and much giggling from a rather amused Louise.

_**-ooo-**_

Kirche awoke with a start.

Something wasn't right... something was clearly not right but she couldn't put her finger on it, it was almost as if...

Then she looked down.

And a scream of horror echoed through the halls of the academy and woke nearly everyone in the tower.

Off in the male section of the tower another scream sounded, this one far higher pitch then it should have been...

_**-ooo-**_

"Draught of breast reduction and Philter of feminization." The skull chuckled to itself. "Classics."

"Shame they only last a few hours." Louise sighed, staring down at her own bosom, contemplating the potion that was the exact opposite of the reduction one.

"You know you _can_ enchant things with the opposite of those particular effects to make them permanent as long as you wear the item, right?.

Louise perked up at that.

_**-ooo-**_

The still flat chested Kirche gawked as her rival walked into class, D-cups straining against the fabric of her uniform and a wicked smile that threatened to tear itself free from her face.

A plain ring sparked on her finger glowing in a spectrum of colors.

_**-ooo-**_

"Why are we dueling Montmorency again?" Louise mumbled, staring down at her enchanting table.

Trafalgar, who was tied to her belt, clicked his teeth. "Because you called her out for taking out her aggressions on an innocent maid?"

"Siesta." Louise mumbled. "She made very good tea... even gave me a few ideas for enchanting."

Another click. "And she was getting blamed for something she didn't do, we both saw Guiche drop that perfume bottle, he disgraces the title of nobility."

Louise nodded. "Right... What do we do?"

"What we do best." The ever present grin on the skulls face seemed to grow. "Enchanting and Alchemy."

_**-ooo-**_

Louise calmed her breathing, plan already prepared in her mind as she glared at the woman in front of her.

"Well well, Zero. And here I thought you'd chicken out." Montmorency smiled smugly, confident in her skills over the supposed 'zero'

Louise scowled at her opponent. "I wouldn't run away from someone like you. You tarnish the name of nobility by blaming a commoner for something Guiche did."

"And you tarnish the name of nobility by being an incompetent zero!" Montmorency snapped back, drawing her wand. "Prepare yourself."

Louise smiled as she pulled out her wand, a half dozen rings gracing her fingers and a pair of small vials in her other hand; a Potion of Regeneration and a Potion of Resist Magic, combined with her rings gave her roughly fifty percent resistance to magic.

She prayed that was enough.

A second year walked forward, a small handkerchief in his hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's a duel." He looked back and forth between them. "Participants, state your names and titles."

The blonde grinned smugly. "Montmorency the Fragrance."

Louise scowled right back. "Louise the..." Her scowl turned into a sneer. "It doesn't matter what I say here, you wouldn't care regardless. Right now I'm just Louise and I don't need other people to tell me who I am." She downed both potions and slammed them into the dirt. "I'm ready. Are you, Montmorency the FLOOD?!"

The girl across from her purpled in rage. "What have I told you about that boorish nickname!?" She snapped her head to the boy holding the handkerchief. "Begin the duel! It will be till one of us gives up!"

The boy bounced back, shocked for a moment. "R-right! Begin!" He dropped the handkerchief and ran for the line of students surrounding the impromptu arena.

Louise snapped her wand up, getting off an explosion before Montmorency could complete her chant. Ah, the wonders of single word fire spells to exploit. Louise had aimed low at Montmorency's feet, kicking up dust and temporarily blinding her.

In response, Montmorency snarled, calling up a water whip and sending it out in a great arc to latch onto whatever it could.

Louise barely had time to dodge, ducking underneath the whip and getting as close to the cloud of smoke as possible. She needed to get point blank for this to work and Montmorency was using her water whip to her best advantage, clearing out great sweeps of land to try and capture her. Fortunately, Louise was able to get off another explosion, the concussion of which knocked the wind out of the drill haired girl. Unfortunately, that meant she was no longer blinded by the dust.

Firing off a couple more explosions at the ground to limit her vision, Louise crept through the dust to flank around, quickly downing a potion of minor Magicka to keep her reserves up. Another pair of explosions, this time from the back, sent the blonde sprawling forward.

"I've had enough of this!" Montmorency snarled, quickly and angrily going through a rather long chant.

Not good. Aside from water whip and her perfumes, Montmorency was known for one other spell, a Line class spell named-

Suddenly the blonde spun in place, most likely noticing her shadow through the dust. "Found you! Water Prison!" Her wand shot forward and with it a glob of water the size of a horse shot out and wrapped around Louise, who let out a half strangled noise as she was enveloped in the water.

"Hahaha! Like a waterlogged rat, ZERO!" Montmorency slashed and spun her wand, sending the water globe up into the air and spinning Louise around as if she were in a washing machine, after almost half a minute of that, she brought the ball down and held it in front of her face, a self entitled little smirk gracing her lips, if a bit exhausted and sweating from the magical exertion.

That smile soon turned to horror as she made out quite clearly, the agitated and quite conscious form of Louise standing within the water, tapping her foot against the liquid as if she were saying 'Is that it?'

It really was unfortunate for Montmorency that her strongest spell was so well known and that it didn't cause direct damage but rather asphyxiated targets indirectly. With both those taken into account, Louise -and by extension Trafalgar- could plan around it.

Waterbreathing was such a useful enchantment!

Having such a high magic resistance on top of that only compounded this, making the ride somewhat less bumpy than it normally would, even after the potion wore off she still had enough resistance not to get thrown around too much. Now she was just cold, wet and pissed off.

With a deliberate slowness, Louise raised her wand, the sweating Montmorency broke into a colder, more fearful sweat as the color left her face. "Fireball!" Louise bellowed, though the only thing that left her mouth were bubbles. The magic took effect however and the water surrounding her exploded outward in a pressurized mist that surged forward and knocked Montmorency off her feet.

Several of the other students got soaked by the wave as well but were too caught up in the match to look away. A gasp rose up as the mist cleared, revealing Montmorency on the ground, her wand laying a fair distance away and a strangely calm Louise standing over her. Another gasp rose up when they realized that a rather long dagger was gripped tightly in her hand, the tip placed gently, almost dangerously on the blonde's throat.

Louise was bleeding slightly from one of her ears as the pressure wave had damaged the eardrum on that side but she held herself steady as she stared down at the woman who had dared insult her, dared consider her less that her! Now, who held who at knife point, their life in the other's hand?

Montmorency glowered at the blade for a moment before relaxing. "I ...surrender." She cleared the water from her throat. "To think you would use a commoners weapon in a duel of mages? And here I thought you couldn't sink any lower zer-ow!" Her eyes widened as Louise brought the knife in closer, releasing a thin red line of blood to the surface.

Louise's voice was devoid of emotion. "This may be a commoners weapon but I'm the one holding it Montmorency." She sneered, letting a vehement hiss escape her lips. "How does it feel to be brought down to my level? Huh? Using nothing but a blade, a couple of potions and my explosions. I beat you with my so called 'failures' and a piece of steel. Brood on that for however long you want to but don't forget it! Remember always that I only spared you because I pity you."

She turned her head and scanned through the crowd of her peers, fire in her eyes. Every single one of them took an unconscious step back. "I pity all of you, that you think that having working magic makes you stronger than me, better than me, that it makes you more _noble than me_!" She spat that last part out acidly. "Well here's the proof that a noble can still be brought down like a dog." Her eyes landed on Montmorency again "By a ZERO!" She then turned on her heels and walked away. None of the students moved to stop her, in fact many moved away from her as if she would attack them too. Like water they parted around Louise as she walked back to her room, vindicated of her uselessness once and for all.

She had defeated a line mage, a particularly powerful one too. With nothing more than a few explosions, some potions, enchanted jewelry, and a small dagger that she still clutched tightly in her hand as if it were a lifeline. As soon as she entered her room, her eyes fell on Trafalgar and her table, the two things that had made this possible.

A small smile worked it's way onto her face as she checked to see what she had left in stock, there was enough there to last a while but she needed more ingredients, more rings and jewelry to enchant, more filled soul gems to power it all.

She needed a lot of things.

looking out the windows, she noted the horse stables and had a fairly interesting idea. Grabbing Trafalgar, she cooked up a few potions then grabbed her traveling cloak.

There was so much to do if she wanted to prove herself worthy of this branch of magic and so little time to do it.

_**-ooo-**_

A bell jingled as a shop door opened, the Apothecary manning the store glanced up to see a young pink headed noble walk in.

With a dignified sniff and a smoothing of clothing, the women greeted her customer. "Good day milady, how may this humble apothecary help you?"

In response to that, Louise pulled a pair of small phials from one of her bags and downed the things.

The Apothecary raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything about the odd behavior, as she had seen stranger. Then the girl spoke and she found herself listening with far more attention that she would have normally given such a person.

"I am in need of potion ingredients." Louise spoke demurely, the effects of the Draught of Haggling and Draught of Glibness taking effect and making her far more effective in her bartering. "I'd like half of everything in the store, up to and including any rare or magical reagents that you might have."

The Apothecary's eyebrows rose, but didn't say much as she collected the number of items in short order, a good thing too as Louise's first potion wore off the moment she paid for the ingredients, saving herself a fairly large sum of money.

She downed another Draught of Haggling as she put away her ingredients. "I have another proposition to make for you."

Again the apothecary stared down in question at the young girl, obviously a fellow potion maker, probably a water mage or something. "I'm listening."

Louise grinned smugly. "I've developed a few new healing potions that heal rather well and are cost effective in ingredients. I'd be willing to sell these exclusively to you at reduced costs if I can get a discount on some of the _rarer_ ingredients that I need." Louise glanced meaningfully over at a small stack of amythest-like stones that had come from the mystic east and were only mildly useful as reagents

A small grin formed on the shopkeepers face, potions of healing made by mages were highly prized and particularly potent varieties could heal even grievous wounds over several hours, if this mage had come up with something that was cost effective and worked just as well... Well, she'd _love_ to have her business. "Sure! Of course, I'm going to need a demonstration of it's effectiveness but I think we can work something out." It was at that point that the shop keeper noticed the small iron dagger in Louise's hand. Fear crept up the woman's body until she noticed the girl holding the edge in her other hand. "What are you do-?" She never got to finish her question as Louise pulled the blade along her palm, cutting a deep slice into the flesh.

With a wince, Louise dropped some of her blood into an small empty phial, determined to see what a mages blood could actually make potion wise, while at the same time grabbing a rag to absorb some of the blood. She quickly showed off the clean slice to the shop keeper before downing a potion of minor healing. With a hiss her hand started smoking and less than ten seconds later, Louise opened her hand to show off the sealed cut, the only evidence that it had ever been there was a small, near invisible scar barely the thickness of a fingernail.

Ecu signs sprang up in the Apothecary's eyes as her mouth began to water, which developed into full on drooling as Louise pulled out a dozen more similar phials and placed them on the table.

The Shopkeeper knew she was being lead in this deal, that stunt with buying out half her stocks was merely to grease the wheels but she couldn't really bring herself to care when Louise pointed out how much she wanted for the potions and what exactly she was looking for in ingredients. Sure, some of the ingredients were exceptionally rare but that paled in the face of a healthy and willing supply of triangle to square class healing potions that could be made cheaply and efficiently. After agreeing to the terms and promising to keep her source confidential for exclusive rights to the potion, the Shop keeper walked away from the transaction a bit poorer in wealth but far, far richer in merchandise. Louise had even promised some other, more powerful potions with differing effects for possible future sale, that only sweetened the deal in the apothecary's mind.

Louise on the other hand could only cackle with glee as she dropped her full purse into her bag of holding. She'd found her niche! With a supply of ingredients and a tentative alternate for Soul Gems she wouldn't have to worry about her stores dwindling and could theoretically continue her business venture indefinitely, especially with how easy some of these potions were to make, it was even possible to make watered down versions to sell to the peasants for a cheaper price. Her magic could theoretically change the way healing was done, perhaps even make useless the entire branch of water healing magics Just think with a bit of coin anyone could heal a grievous injury, sickness or disease!

Louise stopped then. Analyzed that thought several times before a cold numbness settled into her bones.

Cure any sickness or disease...

"...Catt..." Louise mumbled. Here she was, so happy now that she proven herself a worthy noble and her sister was at home, suffering from an unknown illness that was slowly but surely killing her...

She'd needed to plan... to build up her knowledge of potions, stock up on a number of potions that would bring back full vitality to her sister. It wouldn't do to use a potion of cure disease and leave her dearest sister an invalid because of weakened bones, muscles and health. No, she would create enough potions to make a mouse into a manticore and absolutely NOTHING would stop her!

A loud *tink tink tink* drew her attention to a nearby blacksmith and reminded her of her 'other' needs as an enchanter; namely weapons, robes and more jewelry for her defensive enchantments. Having a moderate resistance to magic by itself was all well and good, but she needed quite a bit more defense than that and this would fit the bill, she even toyed with the idea of buying a shield and enchanting that... maybe...

_**-ooo-**_

Louise slouched into the chair next to her work table in the academy, dropping most of her purchases for that day, up to and including; several finely stitched robes, a dozen more silver and gold rings along with various other amulets and circlets, a number of iron and steel daggers, a shield to tinker with, and most importantly-

"Hey, hey little miss, what are you planning on doing with me, mages don't use swords you know!"

-A talking sword; Derflinger. She had found the annoying thing in a seedy weapon shop as she was looking for low cost merchandise to enchant and she had nearly jumped at the chance to buy something that was so clearly unique in her now chosen field of study; actual weapon sentience!

The novelty of the situation wore off much quicker than she would have wanted, namely the fact that the weapon hadn't shut up for the duration of their trip back. She had finally gotten fed up with the thing and stuffed it in her bag of holding but now that it was out again, laying on the table... yeah, she was really tempted to throw the thing into her Enchantment Table and just absorb the enchantment from it. At least... until she learned that some things couldn't be disenchanted like that, they were simply too powerful or uniquely made to unravel. Derflinger in particular had an uncharacteristically potent trio of enchantments; Drain Magicka, something that looked like a magical damage enchantment, and Soul Trap fortuitously enough. Even stranger was the fact that it's sentience actually stemmed from an artificial spirit bound in the weapon, not by some mere enchantment.

Trafalgar went on to explain that things with three enchantments were exceedingly rare and that she would probably only ever get to two enchantments at most as more than that usually started breaking down the integrity of the weapon until it was useless. He further expanded that three or more stable enchantments were usually the signs of an Aedra or Deadra's meddling; the gods and demons of Nirn respectively.

Now there was a bit of blasphemy that she could really devote some time into understanding. While the Brimmeric faith was based upon just that; faith, with even the most devout priests rarely hearing more than the whispers and murmurs of Brimmer. The various Tamrielic faiths were based upon... well, awe and fear... for the most part anyway. There was no question that the Aedra or the Deadra existed, it was proven fact both through the school of conjuration and the many, MANY documented cases of mortals _meeting_ the Nine... Actually MEETING them.

And one of the Nine; Julianos, was supposedly the patron of Mages of Tamriel and was significantly important in the ranking of spellcasting.

Speaking of which.

"Ok, now that we're back home, I want an explanation about what you said before." Louise pulled the skull out of her bag of holding. "Well?"

Trafalgar seemed to roll his eyes. "Alright, here's the run down. All schools of magic have a branching system of learning, where achieving certain pre-ordained benchmarks or cultivating enough skill will 'rank' you up in that certain field. Julianos as well as the rest of the Nine set these benchmarks so that people who aspired to greatness could gain advantages in their chosen field. Alchemy for example has five tiers of what's known as _Alchemist_"

Louise shivered at that word, the way it was spoken sent little goosebumps down her flesh as if it were some inborn magical spell.

The skull ignored her discomfort and continued. "Advancing through those particular benchmarks give boons in the form of increased effectiveness of potions or poisons through divine precedence, simply because you have devoted time and effort to it. There is no real need of devotion to a specific one of the divines, simply living by the path you've chosen is more than enough for most of them. There are exceptions of course. Like Dibella for instance whose a bit more... well not exactly prudish seeing as she's the goddess of love and all... more along the lines of ... picky..."

"So..." Louise frowned. "I could gain abilities that I normally would be unable to use were I to simply become an expert in something because a foreign deity is impressed with my progress in one of it's chosen domains?"

The skull shrugged...somehow. "That's about the gist of it. As it stands I'm only a novice in Alteration, so my spell repertoire isn't exactly amazing. Oblivion's gates, Candlelight isn't even a battle spell, though I suppose some of the armor spells would be a good thing to know about and after awhile you could definitely benefit from the _Magic Resistance, Atronach _and_ Mage Armor _perks, especially since you plan to roll robes and trinkets, that shield and sword would do wonders as well."

Louise twitched several more times as those strange arcane words twisted at the fringes of her mind, as if mortal mouthes were not meant to speak them. She did note their names however and found them to be rather interesting. Depending on what they did, she could possibly be a battle mage like her mother, maybe not have as large a repertoire of spells on hand, but she could definitely see the benefits.

After a few begs and pleads she got the skull to divulge his limited knowledge of Alteration to her.

And thus, Louise learned her first actual spell; Candlelight, and obtained the rank of novice alongside her teacher.

_**-ooo-**_

"Note to self; micro managing a business is a difficult thing to do." Louise muttered to herself.

"Just purchase the contract of one of those maids to help you or something." Trafalgar responded from the table. "Maybe that Siesta woman? She gave you a few ideas before, maybe she can do so again? Who knows, she might even be good apprentice material, she _does_ have a good head for bouncing ideas off of after all, plenty of skin in all the right places hmhmhmm."

Louise gave the skull a blank stare, eyebrow raised. "You base the skills of every woman in this academy on their beauty, don't you?"

The skull rolled it's eyes. "Again, been trapped in a skull for four decades, you can't understand how much I wish I had a body so I could take a woman someplace nice and quiet and _bone_ her stupid."

Louise facepalmed at the thing's tasteless humor. "I'll see what I can do with the budget I have. I'm just glad I was able to make a couple of miniature copies of the Enchanting-Alchemy table. That way I won't be stuck in a single place making things."

That said, Siesta would soon find herself as Louise's first apprentice as well as the new manager of an up and coming, not to mention profitable venture.

_**-ooo-**_

Louise leapt back, her enchanted robes fluttering in the wind as a giant fist of earth smashed into the ground in front of her. The girl stared up at the mage who controlled this giant construct and growled out her defiance, feeling far more powerful in the face of such an enemy than she used to.

After all, she had grown, changed so much in the four weeks since she had summoned her familiar. Noticeable changes even! Her height for one had changed, simply by the constant use of potions during training, her body had been saturated in so many effects that it had supercharged puberty for her, doing in one month what normally would have taken upwards of two years or more. She now stood at five foot six rather than the unimpressive four foot nine that she used to.

And that wasn't the only thing. Louise had learned from Trafalgar that piercing's were just as effective as jewelry at holding enchantments. So, to that line of reasoning, Louise had taken it upon herself to pierce every available space that was appropriate; three holes in each of her ears, one through her tongue and belly button, and one... through each nipple.

And a couple places that they were not appropriate it seemed...

On top of the rings on her fingers and toes, the half dozen or so hair ties that braided her hair into a pony tail, the amulet around her neck and the circlet on her brow, that brought the total number of accessories she wore to thirty- two. Combined with her gloves, socks, shoes, robes, shield, sword, underwear and bra, she now had forty items on her that were enchanted... even though she didn't particularly need that last one...

After all, she had removed the ring of breast enhancement because, like Derflinger's mouth, large breasts had quickly lost their novelty and ended up becoming a hassle in her training and experimentation. Something that Trafalgar found hysterical, having never heard of someone taking enchanting to this extreme before.

The results however, spoke for themselves. Louise had enchanted what she could with defensive enchantments from magical attacks to where she reached the deity given max of eighty five percent magic resistance, she then stacked that with max Ice, Fire and Lightning resistance's that made her nearly Ninty-eight percent immune to all three. She could still be hurt significantly by the physical magics of Earth and Water while to a lesser extent, Wind but that was only part of her defense.

The shield and sword she held in her hands were the physical aspect of her defense, as well as the first part of her magical one. A half dozen of the rings on her body were devoted to increasing the effectiveness of her blocking ability with a shield and another six were devoted to magically augmenting her strength to take even the hardest of blows. As long as she kept the wall of steel between her and an enemy their attacks would falter, regardless of what they were. Derflinger, while annoying, had an active Absorb Magic enchantment that helped absorb incoming magical damage as well as being a physical metal barrier to normal trauma.

Of course, she had needed an inordinate amount of souls to do all of this enchanting, of which the local forest wildlife provided in earnest. She had also taken a few odd jobs -Trafalgar just called them quests- clearing grain cellars of rats and bringing back the pelts of a dozen wolves to a nearby forester. Why, she had even taken care of a large grizzly bear that had made it's home in someone's underground storehouse!

All in all, with Trafalgar's help and vast amounts of quantity over quality Louise had become a mages worst nightmare! Even experienced soldiers would have a hard time getting around her shield! This setup was only augmented by her constant use of potions and poisons that would wear down and outlast any enemy she encountered.

Although this was quite a hard counter to her magical protections... A giant golem of stone just had to bust in and ruin one of the best days of her life; The exhibition fair! While Trafalgar wasn't exactly the most showy of familiars -he was actually kind of feared due to his necromantic nature- he still had a way with jokes that could have really gotten him a_ head_ in life.

And yes, his entire routine revolved around the fact that he was a bodiless skull, which included many head, undead and crude sexual jokes involving boning and other such things.

And she had won! Well, second place at least! Just barely beating out Kirche in uniqueness, which had sent almost orgasmic fits of pleasure through her spine. It was vindication, the greatest moment in her life up to that point... barring her trouncing of Montmorency and devising of one of the most overpowered enchanting setup's devised by man... er woman.

And now she was facing down the golem while the rest of the audience ran screaming away behind her. Most of the mages helped the Princess and audience away to safety while a few chose to stay behind and help fend off the massive construct; Colbert being one of them.

Then the damn thing thought itself clever to attack the fleeing audience, bypassing the mages to do as much damage as possible.

Louise grimaced, this was going to hurt. The pinkette downed several preemptive healing potions then rushed in front of the attacking golem, taking the full brunt of a punching fist that would have launched a lesser man across the academy and over the walls.

But Louise was neither lesser nor a man.

Steel screeched as her shield absorbed the overwhelming amount of force, pushing her back a dozen feet or more, her booted feet sliding through dirt and grass as if on smooth stone.

Then she stopped sliding, the golems arm only half way extended.

Everyone, including the golem -who rightly shouldn't have any conscious thought at all- openly gaped at the scene. Several of the bystanders off in the distance actually stopped to just _stare_ at the scene before them.

To Colbert, who was only a few meters away, it seemed almost like the second coming of The Heavy Wind. To see the woman's daughter no sell a punch from a forty ton stone behemoth as if it were nothing... the fire mage felt a bead of sweat roll down his back, which joined a set of goosebumps as Louise counterattacked, her sword slicing through the constructs hand as if it were cheap paper.

The golem roared, lurching back as it registered it's missing hand. Though it didn't feel pain, it likely thought itself immune to anything the mages could throw at it and the loss of a hand shocked it or the mage controlling it enough to create an opening.

A feral grin formed on Louise's face; that was all she needed! Derflinger stabbed into the ground as Louise pulled her wand out, simultaneously downing a Vigorous Magicka potion. With a roar of defiance, Louise released a fireball spell packed with as much and as dense a concentration of mana as she possessed. The resulting explosion tore the legs out from under the golem, toppling the top half of the creature to the ground were it tried to crawl away with just it's arms.

Louise quickly jumped on the things back to give the coup de grace but the beast shifted violently, throwing her off and quickly formed it's limbs back underneath itself.

Apparently the mage controlling the construct had taken off the kid gloves and was now actively controlling it.

Louise's eyes narrowed as she came around the other side of the school and noticed the gaping hole in the roof of the school treasury and the dark figure standing at the edge waiting to get on top of the golem.

Or perhaps, they had already found what they wanted and needed the beast for a quick escape?

Louise growled, this would not be her moment of failure, she would make sure that thief at least tasted her blade before they escaped, that she swore!

Colbert appeared behind her, already waving a giant snake made of flames around. Louise would have none of it, this was her kill, this was personal now that the bastard was fleeing! She needed to capture the thief as well, so no trying to blow the thing to kingdom come either... regardless, it would likely just reform anyway. She had to get the mage on it's shoulders but how to get up... there.

A crazy idea ran thought Louise's head then, an idea so crazy it just might work.

Taking her shield off, Louise sprinted as fast as she could toward the golem. Downing a Philter of Light Feet along the way, Louise hurled her shield like a giant top along the ground before hopping onto it as if it were a snowboard. As she slid, she felt the potion work it's magic as it made her far more dextrous and balanced, normally allowing one to sneak more effectively, however this allowed her to stay upright on the shield for several seconds, long enough to do this! The Valliere aimed her wand just in front of the shield as it slid, praying to Brimmer, Julianos and whatever rest of the Nine were listening that this actually worked. She hissed one word, causing the ground ahead of her to explode, ground that she had just slid over...

Louise shot into the air, launched like a cannon ball in an arc that put her right over the great golem's head... With a war cry Louise unsheathed Derflinger and slammed the blade down, splitting the creatures head from crown to shoulder causing the thing to sputter as the magics holding it together were drained away, including it's soul which surprisingly filled several greater soul gems to capacity.

The Thief looked at her broken creation in shock, which quickly turned to anger as Louise pulled herself out of the wreckage. A stone spike impacted Louise shoulder and she howled in pain as it made it's way several inches into her flesh before the enchantments were able to stop it. Louise cried out in rage as she cut through the spear of stone and several others like it as she got within spitting distance of the thief. A slash arced out and scored a minor hit on her arm, then she felt the ground leave her.

Louise looked down and realized that the thief had cast a spell below her, the ground raising fast enough that it launched her into the air.

Only to land on the academy vault and slip through the hole that was made only a few moments previous. With a shudder, Louise fell into the hole. A moment later, part of the roof followed, sealing the woman inside.

_**-ooo-**_

"I know you hit your head on the way down here but please tell me you're seeing what I'm seeing." The skull openly gawked at a rather large tome covered with arcane script, written in a language that he recognized almost instantly.

"What exactly _are _we seeing? Louise asked quietly, nursing her bruises and the knot that she'd earned on the way down.

With an almost reverent tone of voice, the skull looked down on the book with barely controlled glee. "A masterwork, a magnum opus of a true master of Magicka. Quick, open it!" Louise did so, shakily making her way over to the book before flipping open the cover, inside was a scrawling of words that were illegible to her but Trafalgar's keen eyes chewed through the script like a man possessed. "Penned by Murilmar the Dragon Skined; Grandmaster of Alteration." The skull clicked his teeth together, searching his memory for such a name.

"Who's that?" Louise stared at the words, trying to make heads or tails of it. "And how can you read this? It just looks like a bunch of squiggles to me."

Trafalgar rolled his glowing eyes. "It's written in Old Altmeris, probably by some snooty Altmer, before it's language intermingled with Old Cyrodiilic to create the Common tongue. As for who? Dunno, never heard of him before. However, he was someone who did not consider penmanship important...Seriously, it's like a fucking five year old wrote this."

"Can you translate it?" Louise asked curiously, ready and willing to devote some time to her only school of actual magic.

"It'll takes some time... but yeah, I should be able to do it, I'll need you to write it down though."

Louise shrugged. "For a better understanding of magic, I can take the time out for it."

"Well good." The skull grumbled, scanning he next page as Louise turned it. "Because I got you a new spell to play with already."

Louise blinked, then her face lit up as she stared down at the book in barely contained glee. "Really?" She purred. "And what is it exactly?"

The skull ignored the girl's rather devious tone. "It's called Oakflesh; a novice spell. It gives your skin and clothing the toughness of oak for roughly a minute, though I've known mages that have increased the time through skill and experience. There are in fact four... well, better make that five versions of that particular spell and are arranged in order of defensive ability; Oak, Stone, iron, Ebony, and given the title of the author, Dragon. You can probably guess what they do."

"Well then." Louise replied sweetly... too sweetly. "We'd best get to it then."

The skull quietly swore that if he had a spine, it'd likely be shivering right now...

_**-ooo-**_

"Hoooly shit on a sweet roll!" Trafalgar gaped, staring down at the staff of destruction with a blank expression on it's face. Then, he started laughing maniacally. "WABBAJACKPOT!"

Louise blinked several times. "What?"

_**-ooo-**_

Louise stared up at the giant golem, Wabbajack in her hands.

The golem glared back.

Louise powered up the staff.

The golem roared.

Louise fired, the shot hitting the creature right between the eyes.

"CHEESE WHEELS! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Trafalgar cackled loudly and maniacally as the stone giant exploded into a fountain of yellow dairy products.

The Thief; Fouquet, fell out of the tree they were hiding in, shock clear on their hidden face.

Louise turned and aimed the staff at Fouquet, a sadistic smile on her face. "Unless you want to end up as a piece of cheddar, give up and come quietly."

A decidedly feminine voice responded, though there was a tad bit of nervousness to her words. "I... I can't. If you arrest me, they'll kill my sister."

Louise set a questioning word up at Trafalgar who was perched on top of her spiffy new wide brimmed witches hat, enchanted like the rest of her gear.

The skull 'shrugged' "Probably held hostage by whoever she's working for."

Louise frowned. "Got an ideas?"

"Hmmm." The skull clicked his teeth together in annoyance. "Yeah, actually. Alright, new plan!" He focused on the thief. "We're NOT going to take you in."

Louise deadpanned. "What?"

Fouquet joined her. "What?"

"In exchange." The skull sniffed demurely. "You're ours. We say something, you do it, capiche?"

Still deadpan, Fouquet almost scoffed. "I don't see any benefit for me, what about my sister? Will you leave an innocent girl to die just to stop a thief who was forced into her thieving ways to begin with."

Which was a big fat lie of course, she had started stealing to stick it to the nobility. Now that she was staring down the staff of one with no way out... maybe she should have reconsidered her choice of profession.

Trafalgar huffed, puffing up imaginary feathers. "Bitch, we just turned your golem into cheese, your argument is invalid!" The skull used it's jaw to tilt itself down a little bit to look at Louise. "I suppose we can help her though. Maybe we can find some more fun toys while we're out and about."

Louise shrugged. "I'm fine with it, we don't have much else to do and we need to test how well my defenses work now that I've mastered Oakflesh."

"Alright." Trafalgar sighed, though he snapped a glare at Fouquet. "But no funny business from you, we can turn your golem into cheese and we can do the same to you! If you betray us, I will make it my personal mission in unlife to cheese you, take your remains to your sister then force feed them to her. I swear by the Nine you will go in yellow and come our brown!"

Louise made a retching noise and Fouquet looked rather green as well... or was that her hair doing that?

"Alright, alright." Fouquet held her hands up. "I'll do whatever you say! I promise I wont betray you, just help me do this and I shall be your servant if that's what it takes."

"And I'll hold you to that." Trafalgar replied grimly.

_**-ooo-**_

A snarl escaped Louise's lips as she parried a wind encased wand sword that threatened to gut her. "And to think, I wanted to marry you!" A wad of spit flew from her mouth and nearly struck Wardes in the face. "Traitor, despot, bastard of the worst sort. I'll be sure to kill you slowly for wounding his highness."

"Wound?" Wardes cackled. "I killed that uppity brat! And I would have had you as my bride had you not resisted my spell!" He sniffed arrogantly. "Regardless, after I've defeated you, I'll strip you of whatever magical item you wear that keeps me from your mind and make you mine!"

Louise breathed harshly out of her nose, she knew better than to take Wardes' bait. There was still some life left in Wales, she could still save him if she could take care of this 'problem' swiftly.

Let's see, it would take too long for her to pull Wabbajack out and matching an experienced blade user as him was getting her nowhere fast. So maybe... Louise blocked another of Wardes' strikes, waiting for an opening to strike annnnd THERE! Louise backed off causing the man to overstep his stab and go off balance, Louise responded by shifting Derflinger to her shield hand and throwing a Virulent Stamina Poison bottle in the man's face.

Predictably, he raised his sword to block, the wind enhanced edge ensuring that the object wouldn't get any closer.

The liquid however...

Wardes screamed in agony as the bottle blasted open across his blade, splattering the burning, stamina reducing poison into his eyes, nose and open mouth, ensuring that he got a good dose of it. With an almost bone rattling sigh the man crumpled to his knees, the potion zapping him of his stamina as harsh gasps escaped his lips.

Now near helpless, he felt another potion splash across his face and almost immediately his remaining mana dropped to empty, ensuring he would do nothing but sit there and stew in his anger.

Louise then bashed him in the face with her shield, mercifully granting him the sweat release of unconsciousness.

Now that the main problem was out of the way, Louise turned and sprinted as quickly as possible to Wales, yanking free her only Potion of Ultimate Healing; a complete fluke on her part but she had been saving it for a dire situation. A near-death royal certainly qualified. With an absolute care, Louise fed Wales the healing potion, slowly rubbing his throat to ensure that it went down.

With a harsh gasp, Wales snapped up and started coughing, almost gagging as the gaping wound in his chest hissed and sputtered before fully closing.

"I'm..." He breathed. "I'm alive?" He reached a hand down, rubbing the spot there as if it were an illusion. "How (cough) am I alive?"

Louise responded by handing him another healing potion to make sure that all the damage was good and done. "I healed you, now drink that to finish what I started."

Wales looked at the potion in his hand and back to Louise several times as if contemplating the idea. Then a sharp pain went through his shoulder and thought it better to listen to the girl who had put a fair portion of his men on their asses and then boarded his pirate ship while it was in the process of boarding HER ship. It was only by the grace of Brimmer that she had chosen to 'talk' to the ships captain -that is to say, himself- rather than just blow his ship out of the air, which she had later said she could have very well done. With a grimace the man downed the potion, nearly gagging as the contents went down his throat. Swallowing the last drop, Wales hawked and spat out the foul taste from his mouth. "What in (cough) Brimmer's name is in this?"

Louise giggled at that, hearing the telltale hissing as the grievous wound finally and fully closed. "It would be best if I didn't tell you... and you'll eventually get used to the taste, I know I have." She grinned to herself as she downed another of the foul tasting concoctions as if it were a fine wine, immediately the scratches and fatigue from her fight melted away. "I have other potions that retain the sweet flavors of the ingredients used. It's just bad luck that these particular bottles, quite powerful might I add, have a few ingredients that... should not be asked about."

The prince made a small gagging noise, running his tongue along the roof of his mouth and coming back with the feeling of slime. "I think I'm going to be sick..."

In response to that, Louise pulled out a charred and very dry piece of meat. "Here, some of my rations should do the trick." At the prince's frown she smiled ruefully. "It tastes better than it looks."

Hesitantly the prince grabbed the meat and took a small bite. His eyes went wide despite himself; it was delicious! The spices used to cure the meat were flavorful and complemented each other wonderfully, even if the meat was a bit chewy it still got rid of the awful taste of whatever was in the potion and made his mouth water for more. "You're right, that tasted better than I thought it would." He mumbled to himself.

"Thanks." Louise smiled. "Made them myself. You tend to learn how to cook when you're out adventuring for long periods of time and I had an amazing teacher." Because a skull with nothing but time on his hands would find a thousand different things to occupy said time, memorizing cooking recipes from previous owners among them.

"What kind of meat was that if you don't mind me asking?" Honestly, it was something he had never tasted before, it was close to rabbit meat, perhaps a bit more... gamey.

Louise looked at the Prince with that strange little smile. "It's rat, why?"

Wales blinked, a frown on your face. "I... beg your pardon... but did you just say-?"

"Rat meat." Louise spoke nonchalantly. "Otherwise known as rodent or less well known as 'those annoying little buck-teeth, long-tailed bastards.'" She raised an eyebrow in a pointed stare. "Rat."

Wales paled, taking several experimental tastes. "I... I never expected it to taste like... that. I know some of the men ate them on the ship but... ugh."

"You wouldn't think it strange if you hadn't asked what it was." Louise replied simply. "And I actually find them quite delicious. Catch the ones in grain storage buildings like I have and they're as tasty as any rabbit I've ever eaten."

"I suppose." Wales answered finally, a small look of distaste on his face.

"They also make great potion ingredients." Along with pretty much everything else she'd ever harvested from the wilds of Tristain but Louise didn't say that as she cheerily got to her feet. "Especially the hides and tails." She idly glanced at the potion bottle on the floor.

This time the prince didn't gag... no, Wales turned an unhealthy shade of green and ran behind one of the pews of the church to maintain his dignity.

The hurling noise followed by the sound of dry heaving completely destroyed that anyway.

Louise just shrugged, pulling a piece of snake jerky out of her bag of holding and took a bite. Some people could be so picky with what they ate.

_**-ooo-**_

"I'm not entirely comfortable with this." Wales grimaced, voice far softer and musical than before as he dragged a levitated and unconscious Wardes behind him with his wand.

Louise rolled her eyes. "Your concerns are noted princess." She reached out and yanked the feminized prince Wales along behind her towards a small cottage "But you'll stand out too much as a prince. This way you'll be able to pass off as a merchants daughter and we can charter a vessel back to Tristain and The Princess' protection."

Wales looked like he/she had sucked on a lemon, though didn't comment further.

Louise walked warily into the clearing , whistling several times in a chosen pattern. Moment's later a ring of golems surrounded the duo. Louise ignored the ring and stared up into the branches. "You can stop showing off now, Logueville." In response to that the ring of golems crumbled to the ground and a cloaked figure dropped to the ground.

"It took you long enough to get here." The woman threw off her hood to reveal her features, including her forest green hair. "Did you bring what I asked?"

In response to that, Louise held up a a pair of rings. "Just like I promised, have you chartered the air ship I asked for?"

Logueville nodded sharply. "It leaves in two days and makes for La Rochelle. We can jump ship over the mainland and make way to Tristain from there."

Louise tossed the two rings to Logueville, who caught them and inspected them for several seconds. "Good. As for that other thing you asked for. The princess is willing to grant you amnesty for your actions as long as you give her information on those whose corruption would bring harm to Tristain."

Logueville's nose twitched lightly as she palmed one of the rings for several moments before slipping it onto her finger. Almost immediately the woman's form morphed slightly, her face squaring up a bit and her feminine figure filling out to something a bit more masculine. Taking out a small mirror, the woman looked herself up and down for a moment before nodding in appreciation. "This is a rather interesting artifact."

"Yeah." Louise grouched. "It's also a pain in the ass to enchant and I was only able to make four of them with the materials that I had but it was worth it when you see how... 'complete' the transformation goes."

Logueville's eyes twitched downward for a moment, a slight blush on his/her cheeks . Then those eyes made their way over to the woman behind Louise, who was looking at him/her with a twinge of recognition.

"Matilda?"

That name had the earth mage ripping the ring off of her finger and a wand in her hand in seconds. "How do you know that name." Logueville spat.

Wales raised his hands up defensively, slowly going for the ring on his finger so as not to startle the woman. With an almost audible whooping noise the woman turned back into the prince that he was. "It's me, Wales. By the founder you're alive!"

THAT name had the woman stop cold, eyes widening in shock and pupils dilating in a what most would consider the preemptive moments of fight or flight, given the way Logueville was gripping her wand it seemed that she would choose to face whatever had spooked her head on. With a snarl a spike of stone had erupted from the ground and nearly skewered the prince where he stood, had Louise not put her shield and by extension herself between the spike and the prince.

"By the Nine woman, what has got you so pissed off!" Louise growled, slicing the stone spike off at ground level.

"That man!" Logueville spat. "Is the reason my father and everyone else that I loved is DEAD!"

Louise inhaled sharply, staring over her shoulder at the prince, who looked stricken by the accusation. "Is she telling the truth?" She would believe the prince wholeheartedly if he denied the claims, but the utter loathing in Logueville's voice wouldn't be directed at the prince lightly. Whatever past these two had together was tragic enough to resort to murder.

"In a way." He answered hesitantly. "You called her Logueville before... that isn't her true name."

"Matilda de Saxe-Gotha." The now named Matilda spat. "Daughter of the Viceroy de Saxe-Gotha, who was your Uncles best friend. And your damn father sentenced both of them and their family's to death!"

Louise glanced back at the prince sharply.

The young man seemed to age drastically, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. "That wasn't what happened and you know it Matilda."

"Fuck you." She snarled. "If you hadn't been so damn curious, my father wouldn't have-." She stopped there, tears in her eyes.

At the questioning look from Louise, Wales elaborated. "I was invited to my uncles estate for a party along with Matilda's family and a number of other nobility. We were young then, not even teenaged yet and as you are already well aware, parties like that tend to bore me." Matilda scoffed, anger still evident in her tone. Wales acquiesced to her point with a slight, saddened nod. "Well, I wanted to snoop around the castle a bit so I gave my guards the slip and started exploring the upper levels." A grimace crossed his face as he stared at Matilda. "I didn't know at the time but the late Archduke of Albion; my uncle, had kept a mistress there, a woman he cared for more than his own wife who had simply been a political marriage."

"I take it that this mistress was the cause of the problems?" Louise asked quietly.

"She was an elf." Wales answered bluntly.

Louise twitched where she stood, though her body remained as taut and ready for action as before. "I think I understand where this is going."

"No." Matilda breathed angrily. "You don't. One of the partygoers turned out to be a Gallian spy and followed the prince. He was first going to kill the ponce and pin the blame on Tristain to insight distrust between the two brother nations but found an even better target." She pointed at Wales. "The spy brought that bastard back to the party and accused the Archduke of heresy. My father defended him, knowing that the spy was speaking truth but confident that his uncle would be able to handle things. Unfortunately, a high ranking member of the church was visiting at the time. It only took one word from him and everything was undone. The elf woman and all those involved, including his uncles family and every one of mine were put to the headsman's axe. The only reason I survived was because I fled, along with one other, the Archduke's daughter and the one I swore to protect from bastards like him." She pointed her wand hand at the prince angrily.

Wales was silent, letting the woman vent her anger, frustration and hatred on him. Then, "You've held onto your hatred, haven't you? You've used it as a crutch for so long you probably forgot little key details or overwrote them in your mind to place blame."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" She growled.

"I'm saying-" The prince spoke evenly. "That the spy 'sent in to kill me'" He placed emphasis on that. "Wasn't there for murder."

"Oh? And how do you know that?" Matilda asked hautily. "If I remember correctly, the man got off Scott free and escaped into the crowd leaving the building."

"And that's where your memories are wrong." Wales sighed. "That man wasn't a spy from Gallia, that was just a cover in case he was discovered. In truth he was a member of the Inquisition." He fixed Matilda with a glare that actually startled the woman. "I know this because my father personally tortured the information out of him, I was even there to watch, to know the shame that we were unable to defend our family from foreign powers."

Wales pulled a letter from a hidden pocket in his shirt, coincidentally over his heart, barely missed by Wardes previous grievous injury. "This is a letter written by my father detailing all that the man spoke of, I've carried it every day since that incident, to remind myself of my shame. The 'High ranking member of the church' you mentioned was also a member of the Inquisition, he was sent there under the previous Pope's orders to investigate possible heresy in Albion's court. You see Matilda, it didn't matter if I was there or not, our family was going to die regardless because of the love my uncle held. If you want to blame anyone, blame Romalia for it's intolerance and bigotry and then blame the inquisition for existing. But do not blame me, do not blame a child who was only used as a scapegoat for the plans of something much larger."

Matilda stared blankly at the man for many moments, slowly walking forward with her wand still in hand to snatch the letter out of his outstretched hands. With an almost uncaring numbness, Matilda opened the letter and scanned the contents. She noted with a strange detachedness that the handwriting was definitely the kings handwriting, it was hard to forget the looping almost careful strokes of the man's words as she had seen enough of it from the letters that her father received from the royal. She also noted that there were several spots that appeared to have been wet at one time littered across the page and that the kings words had a definite edge to them, sharply beginning and sharply ending in an angry press of ink. She realized moments later with no little bit of horror that the crinkled spots were the remains of tears, proven by how corroded the spots were as the salt ate away at the parchment.

This was no fabrication. She had seen enough of those in her time as a thief and this parchment was too worn, too old and had too much of a personal feel to be a cold reproduction or fake. Reaching the bottom of the page and the rather heartrending final words from the king to all those involved, Matilda dropped the piece of paper to the ground, followed closely by the woman herself as she fell to her knees, tears already in her eyes.

"Sister!"

The groups eyes snapped to a cloaked figure running towards the trio and all but tackling Matilda further to the ground. in the process the cloak of the hood fell open and revealed a pair of pointed ears to the air. Louise and Wales froze, though the latter came out of it quicker and approached the two downed women. "Is that you... Tiffania, cousin?"

The two women froze, while Louise's mouth opened in shock. THIS was the Archduke's daughter? Looking the elf-woman over, Louise noted the rather generous curves under the cloak and couldn't help but stare, they were absolutely enormous! Staring as she did, Louise missed Wales falling to his knees near his cousin and enveloping her in a deep hug. To him, it didn't matter if she was a half elf. To him, family was family and he would make up for the shame he and his father had brought to their name by failing to protect the family they had. If that took him being the cousin he should have been all those years ago, then so be it. He would even give his life for this girl if she asked for it, such was his dedication.

Louise only looked uncomfortable in the setting, completely out of her element in the strangely familial atmosphere. A small reminder clicked in her head then. After she had gotten everything between the three situated back in Tristain, it would probably be a good time to visit Cattleya. She had finalized all the potions needed... she simply had to face the daunting challenge of going home... home to her mother...

A cold shiver passed up Louise's spine.

_**-ooo-**_

There was a definite tension in the air as Louise walked through the gates of her family home a male Tiffania, Matilda and female Wales walking along beside her.

Curse Henrietta, curse her and her terrible ideas. To make sure that the trio of Asylum seekers were well protected, there were three places that they could choose to hide out. The capital was unacceptable, to Henrietta's chagrin. With a traitor like Wardes right under her nose, Henrietta couldn't trust anyone within the city to not stab her lover Wales in the back, despite Louise's reassurances that such a wound could be healed with a powerful enough potion, which had started an argument between the two women over the uses of Alchemy and Enchantment that had inevitably forced Louise to teach a few detachments of soldiers about her magics.

Louise had been rather miffed about that, since she already had an apprentice in Siesta and most teachers of the her type of magic rarely took on more than one at a time. Henrietta would have none of it, she was desperate for any advantage she could get. With the public knowledge of Wales survival eeking out through the cracks of Albion's border, a fair bit of discontent from Germania was directed toward the weakest of the Brimmeric nations. The Germanians knew that Wales would have fled to Tristain for help. Unfortunately for Tristain, Germania and Albion had a long standing history that wasn't pleasant nor pretty and as long as Wales lived within it's borders Germania would not assist Tristain in any way, shape or form.

Henrietta had balked at the blatant disregard for her safety. She was to be wed to the Germanian emperor and to cast his bride to the wolves over an old grudge was ludicrous. It was then she realized how little the Germanian emperor cared for her and her country. To him, she was simply a tool, easily replaceable and minor in the grand scheme of things.

To that end, Louise's magic seemed like a godsend, able to be taught to the common people and allow them to do more than act as meat shields for the nobility. Yes, it would more than make up for her people's lack of military power. With such defenses and healing at the common people's fingertips, they could increase their effectiveness a hundred fold in both military and civilian applications. The fact that it would present a chance for a good majority of the commoners to be uplifted to a middle class -which would increase the economy for her country- could only be a good thing.

And if it happened to root out most of the power corrupt nobles in her court at the same time... well, such was the way of things

But back to the matter at hand. The capital was out of the question, the next choice was the academy, but like before, the presence of Matilda there had made it quite apparent how easily it could be infiltrated. No, they needed something undeniably powerful and fortress-like to protect the three exiles.

And what better place than the estates of one of the most powerful and loyal families in Tristain, home to a private and strictly trained guard of over two hundred elite soldiers, an innumerable number of siege defenses and the most powerful human mage -wind or otherwise- currently living; Karin the Heavy Wind.

Pity the army who would attack such a place and expect not to take heavy casualties.

It was this veritable fortress, hidden behind a modest, albeit large estate that had Louise's fists clenched tighter than she could ever remember them being. In this place, her mothers rule was law; The Rule of Steel. Louise grimaced, and here she was bringing political refugee's within the heart of her mother's power without her knowledge or consent. No pressure.

The only solace she brought with her was that this was a royal order and her mother would be hard pressed to deny the princess when it had such a backing. That it was in defense of two houseless royals and a very high ranking noble just might save her from being strictly disciplined.

Maybe. If she was lucky...

With a deep breath, Louise stepped within the her home, leading her trio of guests into the mansion. There, at the top of the stairs waiting like a regal lion staring down upon high was her mother, eyes watching her every move like the predator that she was.

And just like that Louise felt as if she were a child again, under those eyes, no secrets could be hidden, no lies could be made and most assuredly, no rules could be broken on pain of punishment.

"Welcome home, daughter." Even her voice was every bit as regal and measured as the woman's appearance. "What brings you home from the Academy?" Her eyes narrowed on the two men and one woman. "And who are your guests?"

Louise straightened, regaining her not so inconsiderable will to stand up to her mother. "The Academy is unimportant at the moment." Her hand rose to introduce the trio. "You may remove them now." And like that, Wales, Tiffania and Matilda turned back into their normal gender. "May I present Wales Tudor de Albion, Crown prince of Albion; Matilda de Saxe-Gotha, former heir to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha; Tiffania Westwood, Daughter of the late Archduke de Albion. We are to house them under Henrietta's order as they have sought political asylum within Tristain."

If Karin was surprised, she didn't show it. That same calm expression was directed to each of the named individuals in turn, stopping longest on Tiffania, particularly on her long, pointed ears. "I was not informed by the princess or the queen of this."

"It was necessary." Louise spoke evenly, swallowing lightly. "All haste was to be given to hiding the whereabouts of the prince."

"And the others?" Karin asked, her voice tinged with a minuscule amount of curiosity.

"Have been in hiding since the Archduke and Viceroy were put to death over a decade ago when they were but children and therefore innocent of any wrongdoings of their parents." Louise summoned up all of her willpower and stood firm in the face of her mother, not giving an inch as she stared her mother unblinkingly in the eyes. A battle of wills was fought then, as childish as it may have been, the two stared in a bid of dominance that both would be equally unwilling to admit to.

Surprisingly, Karin looked away first, though her eyes held disinterest and apathy towards the trio of exiles. She had let her daughter win, chocking up such defiance to the Rule of Steel. After all, loyalty to the crown was placed above all things, up to and including family in some cases. To see Louise upholding the orders of the princess unflinchingly in the face of her mother -who knew intimately how much she could unnerve people with but a glance- was exactly what she had taught her daughter and she couldn't be faulted for that.

That still didn't stop her from glaring daggers at Tiffania. "Tea shall be served on the veranda, come, we have things to discuss, daughter.

Louise waited until her mother had left before she released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Your mother is terrifying." Wales remarked bluntly.

Louise shook her head, a bead of sweat rolling down her face. "I know."

_**-ooo-**_

The four retired to the veranda where her mother and Louise's sister Cattleya sat drinking tea. It was a warm and heartfelt greeting between the two siblings that only lasted until the other could find a seat and be served a cup of tea.

Without being told to begin as that would be rather redundant at this point, Louise went into her tale, she didn't elaborate on a few things, about as much of a lie as she could tell in the presence of her mother but for the most part, she explained what she had been up to for the last two months and explained a bit about her magic to her mother, nothing in depth but more than enough to give Karin a general idea of what she was capable of doing.

Which was the perfect lead in for Louise to pull a half dozen bottles from her bag of holding and slap them down, rather noisily onto the table. Each bottle except for a pair were a different color; dull red, deep aqua blue, sunny yellow, forest green, and lastly a pure white. The final potion was also a dull red, though this last had a single gold band around the center that denoted something special.

Karin stared at the bottles for but a moment, an idea for their use already on her mind but she wanted to know what the did first before accepting or denying their use. "Explain."

Louise pointed to each bottle in turn. "They are in order; Fortify Health, Fortify Magicka, Fortify Strength, Fortify Stamina, and a potion of my own devising that strengthens the bones. I'm thinking of naming it Fortify Frame." She glanced up into her mother's eyes. "They are all permanent versions as well, using some of the most expensive and rare ingredients that I could get my hands on so that their effects would become natural to the body instead of a temporary boost."

"And the last?" Karin stared at the gold ringed bottle.

"A potion of Cure Disease." Louise spoke firmly. "And before you ask, yes, _any_ disease." A small frown formed on her mothers face then, as if in disbelief. Louise spoke quickly to affirm her statement. "In the land where my familiar is from, these potions are capable of curing all know diseases, including Lycanthropy and Sanguinare Vampiris, as long as it is taken before the first full moon or before a week has passed respectively."

A minute widening of the eyes, a subtle twitch of the mouth, an almost unnoticeable straightening of the back; These were all signs that she had gotten her mother's attention. "Each of these are for Cattleya. She can take them in any order though I would prefer if she took the Cure Disease potion first."

The woman in question rose from her seat and approached the bottles. "Will these really heal me?" She asked in wonder, staring down at the rainbow of potions.

"That and more." Louise assured. "I spared no expense and worked tirelessly to make these as strong and as effective as possible."

Cattleya hesitated for several moments before her hands shakily found their way around the neck of the gold ringed bottle. The woman licked her lips anxiously as they touched the rim, she hesitated once more, as if worried that this would be another failure. One look into her sisters eyes squashed that as quickly as that came. They were resolute. To Louise there was no other outcome; she would be healed. Tipping the bottle back, she felt the first taste of the liquid.

She blinked in confusion. It tasted like strawberries... with a hint of roses? Downing the entire bottle far quicker than she expected, the woman felt the almost ambrosia-like liquid roll down her throat into her stomach. From there it felt as if her entire body was made of tingly bubbles, the feeling causing her to giggle as her insides tickled. After several moments the tingling stopped, leaving her with only a hint of the taste and a bone deep weariness. That isn't to say it was a bad weariness like the ones her illness caused. No, this was as if she had simply overworked herself for longer than intended, already there was more color in her face and her breath wasn't nearly as labored as it was previously. If one were to compare, it was as if a great weight had been taken off the woman's shoulders, yet she was still tired from the initial exertions.

Staring wide eyed at the bottle for many moments, the middle Vallière sister tossed the bottle aside carelessly and grabbed the next red bottle; Cherries and... cream? She reached for another, comparing the flavors of each in turn; fresh picked Blueberries, banana creme pie, Mint chocolate, vanilla ice cream with a hint of freshly fallen snow. Each time she ingested another of the potions she felt the effects clearly. Each one releasing strange tingling, bubbly or refreshing feelings through her body. By the time she had taken the last potion the woman looked as strong and healthy as someone of her age should be. Gone was the illness, the weakness, the gaunt appearance of her form.

To those watching from the outside, it appeared as if she had deaged by at least half a decade, looking as lively as a woman two thirds her age.

For Karin it was a blessing, an answering of prayers long thought ignored. She turned to Louise to find, to her surprise, that the girl was staring at her sister with an almost severe look, watching the effects take hold and likely cataloguing any aberrance that she should make up for. After the last potion was finished, Louise let out a sigh of relief, then smiled a smile that Karin could never remember her daughter displaying, one so filled with joy and pride that she couldn't help but bask in it.

Karin wasted no time in calling a healer who, after carefully scanning Cattleya with magic several times, gave the woman a clean bill of health. She was healthy as could be possible, the healer even joked that she was 'too healthy.' A joke that was taken in good spirit as everyone felt a bit lighter than before.

"I plan on assisting Henrietta in the war." And then Louise had to ruin it minutes later after the initial rejoicing had settled down.

"No." Karin spoke sternly, the small smile on her face falling into a frown. "I forbid such a thing. Your potions and enchantments may be powerful, but they wont protect you from the dangers of combat."

Louise scowled, those were fightin words! "I am completely aware that there are still things that can defeat my protections but I assure you that those are few and far between. I've already fought and defeated several mages of high level, including a line and two triangle class mages." She glared at her mother then, who looked slightly taken aback. "One of whom happens to be the captain of the Griffin Knights; my ex-fiancé and crown traitor Wardes."

Karin actually looked surprised at that, she hadn't been informed of anything of the sort and beyond that it was impossible for Wardes to be a traitor. She had known the man for years and her instincts were impeccable, there was no way such a thing could have eluded her scrutiny. "What did he do to be labeled a traitor."

"Nearly killing me, for one." Wales spoke up then, voice rather cheeky.

Louise nodded, playing along. "Attempted murder of a royal is definitely something a traitor would do."

Wales rubbed his chin in thought. "He did try to force you to marry him too, didn't he?"

"Why yes." Louise responded sourly. "Yes he did."

"There was also that thing about him spying on his country for Reconquista." Wales pointed out.

The youngest Valliere widened her eyes slightly in mock surprise. "True true. I had forgotten he said that."

Meanwhile Karin's eyebrow twitched violently at the rather mocking tone the two were using. "Enough! I get the point."

Louise dropped all humor from her voice. "Do you, really?" Her hands clenched in irritation. "This has nothing to do with Wardes, this is about you trusting my judgement. Even now you're questioning my capability when I've proven myself on more than one occasion to everyone present in this room, you included not ten minutes ago when I healed Cattleya."

Karin's features softened somewhat. "Healing and taking life are two different things Louise."

"I am aware." Louise retorted. "But sufficient skill in one does not mean a lack of skill in the other. What would it take for you to understand this?"

The Valliere matriarch was silent for a moment after hearing that, her mouth held in a fine line. "If you feel that strongly about your skills." The woman's shoulders squared and she held herself taller than before. "We shall put them to the test." She turned on her heels, heading for the wing of the house that housed the armory. "Meet me outside in ten minutes, the rest of you may come as well." The door leading out of the room closed behind her with a slam of finality.

Wales opened his mouth, closed it, swallowed with a suddenly dry throat then looked to Louise who seemed equally gob smacked. "Did... did your mother just challenge you to a duel?"

"That... that sure sounded like one." Cattleya looked stricken, torn between helping Louise get out of the situation she was in and allowing her to continue despite that, so as to prove to their mother that she was as skilled and competent as she claimed.

"Well..." Louise felt her stomach churn in worry. "Crap."

_**-ooo-**_

Karin was, quite frankly, terrifying. Or at least Louise told herself that when her mother walked out onto the barren stretch of field that was the Valliere training grounds. Clad in her old military armor and wielding her rapier-like swordwand, Louise could say with certainty that her mother cut a very, very imposing figure.

It was probably too late to forfeit, her mother probably wouldn't let her anyway. Louise realized this moments after it crossed her mind and her heart stopped it's frantic beating. This wasn't a fight or flight moment as fight had been chosen long before the possible question. Calmly, the girl grabbed the hem of her robes and lifted them over her head, she would need every advantage she had against her mother and the cumbersome nature of this robe had become a liability.

Given what was below the cloth, it was clear that she no longer needed it anyway.

Karin raised an eyebrow at her daughters choice of dress. Belts... that was the first word that came to mind as Louise dropped her robes into her bag of holding. On top of a pair of plain brown trousers and a light green long sleeved shirt were countless leather belts, wrapping around her arms legs and chest in a dizzying weave, the metal buckles and whatever trinkets tied to them glittering in the sun.

This was her magnum opis, the culmination of all her hard work and dedication to her craft, as well as the ultimate way to cheat the system. Belt's were leather, which would normally constitute armor but individually they were considered an accessory, so while they had some possibility of protective properties they could still be used without nulling her mage shield perk.

And if they happened to be worn in such a way as to protect from minor damage? Well, so much the better. If anyone had the capability to see magic energy in a visible spectrum, they would see Louise as a glowing sun, due to the dozens, if not hundreds of enchantments. If there was an enchantment for it, she likely had it equipped somewhere on her person and it was this ultimate combination of enchantments that made her nigh unstoppable.

Her mother didn't know that. To her, the clothing looked highly impractical and more than a little uncomfortable.

Louise then pulled Derflinger from her bag, alongside a shield she had just recently commissioned; a new design the smiths were calling a heater shield. It was shaped much like a dragon's scale, with a wooden core and leather hand grips. Over that core was a thin layer of steel across it's face, embossed with the Valliere coat of arms as well as that of the Crown and Louise's personal symbol; a pair of crossed swords behind a potion bottle. It was a symbol that represented all her hard work and struggle, something that was physical proof that she was a mage worthy of her name.

Louise's father stepped forward, eyeing the two women with no little amount of wariness. He had arrived not minutes before, weary and ready for a nice cup of tea. Instead he found his daughter in a duel with his wife to try and prove herself, while Louise's guests as well as his older daughters had informed him of Cattleya's healing at Louise's hands. His gaze landed on his youngest daughter and a small shiver passed through his spine. Normally, he would have backed his wife in whatever decision was made, but the way Louise looked now, so resolute and strong in the face of his wife's legend, there was some doubt placed in his mind that his daughter wasn't ready for the battlefield.

"Are the two duelists ready?" He got two nods in return. "Very well, as this is a test of skill, first blood in insufficient, therefore, it will be until one cannot continue. Is this acceptable?" Another pair of nods. With a sign, the man pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and tossed it high into the air, turning around he walked back towards the sidelines.

The two women stared at each other as the cloth floated down between them, neither one taking their eyes off the other. The cloth touched the ground.

"Air hammer." Karin muttered easily, starting off small to test the defenses of her daughter. There was no surprise in her eyes when her daughter deftly stepped to the side and dodged the attack. Yes, that was the sensible thing to do. Even if your defenses were strong enough, why block something when you could just as easily dodge the thing and save the ache in your arms for something more life threatening? This time a trio of Wind Blades arced out, two of them dodged easily while the last broke against Louise's shield as if made of fragile glass. A smile formed on Karin's face then. Good, her daughter could protect herself against dot to line class spells.

Now for triangle.

"Blade Cyclone." A precursor to her heavy wind, the small tornado of wind magic arced through the space Louise had just occupied, tearing large divots through the ground and throwing it through the air. Louise was behind the spell then, slashing through it with her sword. To Karin's shock the weapon seemed to drink of her spell, weakening it to a slight breeze before her daughter turned on her heels and launched a bright arc of energy straight towards her.

Copying Louise's earlier move, the Valliere Matriarch simply side stepped the attack and countered with a pair of Air Hammers.

Louise dodged the first, then smashed the second aside as she adjusted her shield as if she were pointing a wand at her mother.

Karin's eyes went wide as she felt the small jolt of instincts long ingrained in her body telling her to MOVE! She was one step ahead of the explosion as it tore great clods of dirt out of the ground, throwing smoke and dust into the air.

Louise smirked in triumph, glad her little trick actually worked, clutching the handle of the shield in her hand... a handle which was slightly longer than normal and tapered down to a point on the forward facing side. Incorporating a wand into a shield was a wonderful idea and something that should have been thought up long ago.

Karin stumbled out of the smoke cloud, ears ringing and covered in dust as well as some minor scratches along the few points of her body not covered in cloth or armor.

"First blood belongs to me." Louise laughed lightly. Now that she could finally fight with little to no reservations, this was actually kind of fun.

And then her mother's eyebrow twitched and Louise found herself hitting the ground to dodge the carriage sized, square ranked Air Hammer that plowed through the space her upper half was occupying not moments before, breaking through a half dozen trees behind her.

_'O...kay... note to self, never, ever piss off mother.'_ That was even more readily apparent when a hail of wind blades assaulted her position. Louise didn't even attempt to block them, choosing to dodge and use the terrain to her advantage as she cast another dozen or so explosion spells, kicking up dust and debris to block her mother's view. That only lasted a few seconds before being pushed to the ground by her mother's wind magic but that was more than enough time to close the distance between them and lash out with her blade. Predictably a clang of metal met that action and she found her mother's sword wand in her path.

She also caught a point blank dot level Air Hammer to the face.

Blood splattered as the pressure broke her nose and bloodied her lips while the rest of her remained relatively fine due to enchantment. She slammed down into the ground a ways into the forest that surrounded the training ground, already fishing for a quick potion to stop the bleeding and revitalize her magic. Downing two bottles the girl got to her feet and cast a knee jerk explosion in front of her. The tree exploded with the force of a canon, sending wooden shrapnel into the air... as well as the surprised Karin who was closing in to sword range at insane speeds.

Looks like her mother had decided to up the level of threat and use her other infamous wind spell; Haste.

Karin hit the ground in a roll, dashing into cover as the tree next to her ceased to be. It was at that moment that the woman gained a new found appreciation for Louise's explosions, as even the single word, dot level spells threw around enough concussive force that they could destroy trees like a several line incantation of line class or more.

And there didn't seem to be an _end_ to them. Tree's fell all around her and she found herself having to cut off her Haste spell and wordlessly use the blunt form of her Heavy Wind spell to keep from being crushed in a wall of falling wood.

And as quickly as the cacophony of noise started; it ended, the entire forest dead silent as even the splintered wood had stopped falling in the interim. Karin moved slowly through the shadowed forest, feeling strangely out of place in the silence. She froze next to a tree as her daughters voice rose up all around her.

"So how am I doing so far, mother? Is this level of skill worthy of a war or should we continue this farce?"

A scowl formed on Karin's face at the flippant way her daughter was treating this duel. "There is no place for joking on the battlefield, I taught you better than that, Louise."

A chuckle sounded right behind her, the woman spun but found nothing there.

"Ah yes, the 'Rule of Steel' you taught me so much about." a hint of distaste entered her tone. "I have long since abandoned such a flawed mindset."

Outrage welled up within Karin as a snarl escaped her lips. "You've done _what_?" Then what else she'd said caught her attention. "The Rule of Steel is not flawed!"

"Oh really?" Again the voice came from behind but when Karin turned to find it, there was no one there. "Let me tell you a little story." The patronizing tone from before grew twofold. "I was in the capital a few weeks ago, seeking an audience with Henrietta and while waiting I happened upon her majesty the queen."

A small twitch was the only thing that gave away Karin's nervousness at those words.

"I don't know if she was tired or, in light of her husband's death, simply nostalgic but I found myself humoring her and listening to the tales of her past." That last part came out in a deadpan even tone. "Lo and behold I happen to hear a name that I hadn't expected to come from her lips."

Karin's stomach fell, somehow knowing where this was going.

"She started talking about this person. In her teenage youth, she traveled with a wind mage of unparalleled skill and power, barely my age and yet a knight of the land. Her most key defining features where her pride, her hot headedness and a head of strawberry blonde hair. Sound familiar?"

"What is the point of bringing up stories of my youth Louise?" Her eyes shifted back and forth as a small bit of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach. "It's not something I'm particularly fond of."

"Why? Because I find it odd how similar in disposition and appearance we are at that age. It's strange, you taught me the Rule of Steel but when I ask if Eleanore or Cattleya studied under you in a similar manner they remain silent. Why is that I wonder?"

"Louise..."

"I'll tell you why! Because you saw yourself in me. You saw your pride, your hot headedness and let us not forget that I looked exactly like you at that age. Isn't that right, Karina Désirée de Maillart!?"

It was at that point a Heavy Wind picked up, the whirling mass of an overpowered Cutter Tornado spell, infused with the powerful cutting force of a Vacuum Blade spell giving birth to the most powerful square class wind spell known in Halkeginia. Tree's were ripped up by their roots, those that remained were cut to kindling. Karin let out a sigh of relief as the woods settled, the anxiety from before seemed to ease up a bit.

"But we weren't alike, were we?"

The woman spun to find Louise, standing behind her, not a single scratch on her and her mouth a thin line.

Karin took a single step back.

"You found out later that there was something that set us apart, something that made me different from you." She looked down at the wand attached to her shield. "Where you were a prodigy, lauded as the the strongest wind mage in Halkeginia even then, I was a failure, a lost cause, barely good for a political marriage." Her voice was entirely dead now as she took a step forward.

Karin took another step back.

"You probably thought 'where did I go wrong?' on more than one occasion, am I right? To see my constant failure at magic, you must have thought at some point that maybe, just maybe, 'This is my fault, I'm the one who cursed my daughter with whatever poor blood I have running in my veins.'" She took another step forward.

Karin took two more back.

"After her tale was finished, I asked the queen where you had come up with the Rule of Steel." Louise shook her head. "She didn't answer me, instead she quickly changed the subject, trying to hide it from me. Her silence alone explained plenty." Louise looked at her mother, pity in her eyes. "Whatever happened to you to make you the person that you are, hasn't happened to me, nor will it ever. I'm not you mother and I never will be." Her voice firmed up. "While you hid behind steel walls, I took a good long look at myself and what I wanted. I sweat blood and tears to do all this." She pointed at her enchanted items. "With the help of my friends I came to accept what I am, rather than hide it away."

Karin stumbled back, hyperventilating and eyes wide.

"Let me ask you this, mother." Louise looked through what was left of the tree line to the mansion and the memories held within. "When was the last time you hugged one of us? My sisters and I?"

A breath of air caught in Karin's throat, her body freezing solid. "I..." She looked back through her memory for several moments but came back with nothing.

"You don't know? Let me ask another then. When was the last time you said 'I love you.' to one of us? Or said that you were proud of us, or told us that you care? Did you ever care?"

The rapid fire questions chipped away at the foundations of the steel wall around Karin's heart, the small motherly bit that she hid from others crying out in pain as her daughter spoke such atrocities as if they had actually happened.

But then, the mother inside of Karin stilled as no memories came to mind that proved Louise wrong. When had she last hugged her daughters, actually hugged them? When was the last time she had told them she loved them? That she was proud of them or that she cared?

Nothing... She couldn't remember. That, more than anything sent the woman to trembling, her sword wand shaking in loose hands. A crackle of leaves brought her attention back to her daughter. Again the woman nearly gagged as air fought a losing battle in choking the life out of the woman. Louise was walking forward, visage grim and stride purposeful. For a single moment, a blur passed over Louise's form and she was now staring at a younger version of herself, the same determination shrouding her in an aura that almost hurt to look at.

But look at it she did, especially the eyes, instead of the steel that resided in her own, those pale red eyes burned with an inner spark, as fiery and passionate as those in her youth. ...No, these eyes were not the same... these eyes spoke of a calm she hadn't possessed back then, her every motion spoke of a tamed flame, a flame that didn't burn those around them. No, this flame was directed, controlled with the precision of the very best flame mage. It was at that moment that Karin realized what she was looking at. This was her ideal self, the woman she wanted to be, the woman she had given up on when she had taken on the Rule of Steel.

And the face in front of her held such contempt for her older self, a woman cowering in fear, too afraid to look herself in the face and man up to her failures.

"No..." Karin swallowed with a dry mouth. "Stay away." Her voice came out weakly, though she held her sword wand towards the phantom that was stalking ever closer. "Stay away..." The Karin that was her ideal self didn't stop. "Stay away damn you!" Another Heavy Wind raged, fueled by her anxiety and fear, the wind grew to encompass the entire forest, blades raging out of control as they ground most of the trees around them into powder.

Through it all, the younger Karin never stopped, didn't even register as a blade of wind cut a deep line through her cheek, didn't even flinch when a foot long wooden splinter stabbed into her sword arm.

The wind finally died down and the younger Karin was only a few feet away, bleeding, but face still set in grim determination.

Karin shook her head, eyes wide as she took several stumbling steps back, to get away from the specter that haunted her vision. A dull hiss sounded behind her and Karin only had enough time to turn and look behind her at the strange red rune before her vision turned dark.

Louise stopped, staring down at the ash covered form of her mother and sighed. That... that had taken far more out of her then she had thought it would. But she couldn't stand there, she had to finish this. Pulling out several long strands of rope and some heavy weights from her bag of holding. Louise then tied the rope around her mother's hands, then through the armor before suspending both on a pair of nearby fallen trees, what few had survived the mulching power of her mother's Heavy Wind. She then tied her mother's legs together and finished off with a rope around the basket guard of her mother's sword wand which was then wrapped around one of the fallen trees.

forty-five seconds after her mother had tripped the Ash Rune, she regained consciousness. with a dull thump, the woman's arms where extended by the weights and brought her arms apart as if she were placed upon some medieval torture device. In response to such a position, the woman unconsciously activated a blade of wind along the length or her swordwand, that was stopped however as Louise yanked roughly on the rope attached to the basket hilt, pulling it from her mothers hand to embed up to the guard in the tree, where it powered down and would remain until someone was able to use magic on it and free it.

Her mother's eyes snapped open as she felt her sword being liberated from her grasp and then felt the compromising position that she was in.

Louise raised her sword and placed the tip under the woman's chin. "I win." She said simply as she crouched down next to her mother, whom flinched at the girl's close proximity. "Do you want to know why?"

The Valliere matriarch didn't respond, she simply looked away.

"I'm going to tell you anyway because you need to hear this." Louise growled firmly, grabbing the woman by the chin and turning her face for their eyes to meet. "For years now I've always been trying to play catch up with you. I wanted to be exactly like you." Her eyes softened. "That was my mistake, my true failure. It wasn't until I learned to be myself and find my own way that I realized where everything in my life had gone wrong. You were always trying to find similarities between us. I on the other hand realized that the only way to better myself was to find the things that make us different. No two people are alike, there will always be something fundamentally different between us that makes your way ineffective for me and others."

Louise tossed a lazy hand over her shoulder at the destruction around them. "I beat you today because I came out here fully expecting to lose. I came out here, knowing your strength's, knowing for a fact that you could put me down ten times out of ten if you just took me seriously." A small smirk crossed the girls face. "But you didn't take me seriously. You saw the helpless, failure of a little girl that I was, and projected your insecurities onto it. You didn't want to face me full power because you didn't want to face yourself. And when I threw those insecurities in your face, you couldn't handle the truth and lost control." Her smirk took on a full on chuckle. "And beyond that, I won because I knew from the beginning that the Rule of Steel was flawed. I knew that your determination would falter in the face of mine. In the end, I didn't have to beat The Heavy Wind, mother." Louise stared dead into her eyes. "In the end, I had to beat _you_."

Louise stood up, using Derflinger to cut the ropes holding her mother tied up, then retrieving her equipment and putting it away. With one last look to the lost looking woman, Louise left what remained of the forest and headed back to the mansion, the small group of solemn witnesses to her impromptu duel following along behind her.

_**-ooo-**_

Louise stared out over the plains of Saxe Gotha at the gathered army of Seventy Thousand troops. Henrietta and Wales were standing next to her, silently praying to Brimmer and, due to Louise's meddling; the Nine. Most Romalian priests would call that blasphemy but after Louise had spoken to the Water Spirit of Lagdragoran Lake during Guiche's love potion incident, it had, in it's ancient wisdom, confirmed their existence. The spirit had even heavily hinted that the Nine had assisted Brimmer in the creation of his magic system. After the last chapter of the founders prayer book had revealed the proof of that fact, it had all but cemented in the two monarch's minds that the magic Louise wielded was something divine, If not from Brimmer then from the gods who had made him their agent on this world.

It was uncomfortable being held up to the lofty title of saint, having people pray to her for good fortune or ask for a divine blessing. It didn't help that she had been revealed to the public as the person who had made the potions that had healed so many of disease and life threatening injuries after the battle of Tarbes. The people had praised her as a miracle granter, an incarnation of Brimmer himself.

Even worse was that Henrietta had released the fact that she was a Void mage to the soldiers to bolster morale. Now, not only was she being praised as having the blessings of the Nine but it seemed she was also presented as a descendant of Brimmer and one of his chosen ones.

She had never expected it, never even understood what her place would be in the history books of her world. She had only done what was natural, what was expected of her as a true noble; a woman of mercy to her friends and a warrior of vengeance for her enemies.

It was this mindset, this lifestyle that had brought her mother to her knees... for the second time; in respect. Her mother had actually bowed to her, one warrior to another, during the ceremony made last minute by the queen to grant her the political power needed to lead the nations army alongside Henrietta and her husband Wales. Then Karin had embraced her, a mother to her daughter, tears in her eyes and words of approval on her lips. It was... strange... shocking even.

The look on her mothers face when she didn't immediately return that affection... that had hurt Karin...

Louise noticed that and hesitantly returned the hug. It wasn't that she couldn't hug her mother... it was that she had never hugged her mother like this. Approval for her actions was something foreign to Louise. It seemed that the woman had taken Louise's words to heart and searched her own soul and found her youngest daughters words to be true.

Her rule of steel was discarded much like her dignity when her own daughter had bested her, defeated the legend and proved her place in the family... a burden she never should have had to shoulder to begin with, so much for one child... It was a wonder that the steel she had forged within her daughter hadn't snapped under that kind of pressure.

To see her daughter grow up to be a woman who she herself had aspired to be at that age, a woman she had discarded when she had become the Heavy wind, a woman she had discarded when she encased her heart in steel... it filled her heart with happiness for her daughter but also sadness at the cold woman she had become...

But no more! That cage was broken! Karin had changed even in these short few months after her defeat. She was softer spoken, smiled more and even returned the affections of her daughters in ways that they hadn't seen since childhood; if ever. It seemed that all the woman needed was a good dose of reality to see that she didn't need to hold back her emotions any longer. She was no longer the soldier that she once was, the younger generation had taken it upon themselves to bear that load. From what she had seen; the straight back of her daughter, the pride and strength held there, it seemed that they bore it well.

Shaking those memories from her mind, Louise turned away from the massive army and stared at her own; a paltry ten thousand souls and as their leader they would follow her even to death.

No.

Louise's eyes hardened. They would not die here, not on this land so far from home. Louise almost sparkled gold as the rising sun hit the multitude of metal accessories adorning her. To the gathered soldiers, she appeared as an angel, clad in the skin of mortal woman. They believed this with all their hearts, that she was an instrument of the divine. Like her predecessor, Louise had gathered those that had the gift, many of them commoners and a few worthy mages and had taught them her craft, forged them as Brimmer had once done into the mages they were destined to be. She did not give this class ruling authority. No, she had seen the folly of Brimmer's methods in the corruption of nobility. Being a zero, having to work for her achievements, having to sweat blood and tears doing things that a normal noble would never have had to do, It had polarized her view of the current nobility and compelled her to give everyone the equality that they deserved, an opinion that she and Henrietta shared.

Alchemy, Enchanting and Alteration spread freely through the ranks of commoners, many a soldier stood resolute with enchantments of defense and potions of healing; their brethren holding spells of mage armor in hand, ready to charge in and defend their brothers in arms.

It made Louise happy, to see the change she had wrought with her own hand, to see how far she'd come and how far there was yet to go.

With a smile she drew Derflinger and donned her shield. The sun reflected off the polished metal surfaces as her voice rose over the soon to be battlefield "Ready your arms and spirit my people!" Her voice roared, echoing out over the ranks. "These soldiers in front of us think that they can defeat us! Their leader thinks himself an emperor, a conqueror of men and country! Let's show them all the power of us brave few, a people ready to give back a hundred fold everything that our enemies have wrought!"

A deafening roar answered her as the soldiers rattled their swords against their shields, shouting defiance and curses alike at the enemy in front of them.

A Shadow loomed over Louise then, temporarily dampening her brilliance. Another roar echoed out over the battlefield, long and loud as her mother leapt off her manticore in full battle armor, sword wand held at her hip. Louise watched her approach and blinked in confusion as she remove her helmet to take a kneel in front of the three of them.

"My sword and magic are yours to do with what you will your majesties."

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Wales muttered in shock. "The Heavy Wind stands ready for war yet again?" Murmurs rose up from many of the older soldiers who recognized the woman in front of them, they then frantically whispered the legend of the woman to the many new recruits who didn't know.

Their shock grew however as Karin stood and stared Wales in the eye. "My blade shall always be in service to the crown." She turned to Louise and her eyes softened. "And more so than that it shall forever come to the defense of my daughter for as long as I live to hold it."

A hushed silence passed through the ranks. Saint Louise was the daughter of The Heavy Wind; one of the strongest mages in history? It was fitting in a way, to see the mother and daughter stare at each other, respect plain to see on both of their faces.

Louise smiled then and held out her hand, a collective breath came from those gathered. "I would be honored to have you by my side in this battle... Mother."

Karin stared at the hand for a moment before she too reached a hand out and gripped Louise's firmly. It was silent for another moment before a low chant could be heard, starting slowly then building up into a crescendo of cheers that rattled even the armor of the Albionese army almost a quarter mile away.

After the handshake, the foursome turned back to the looming army and readied their weapons, Karin leaping back into her saddle to be the army's aerial support.

With a roar, Louise charged, signaling the start of battle. The Albion army responded with a roar of it's own, moving just as quickly to spill the blood of those that dared stand in their way.

They would falter however, when they noticed the angel at their enemies lead; ethereal in her presence and powerful in her anger as a cloak of gold wreathed her body.

Like a battering ram Louise crashed into the front lines, Derflinger cutting a path of destruction in her wake. She moved through a line of soldiers and unleashed a mass Paralysis, downing everything within forty feet. The soldiers behind her mopped them up with ease, even as she marched through another group.

Cannons roared out from behind the enemy line as they launched their armament. Moment's later they smashed into a wall of wind and were sent back, destroying their point of origin in a blast of raging fire. Karin swept over the battlefield a second later, her manticore howling at the enemy, daring them to test it and it's masters mettle.

Many of Albion cried in horror at the specter of death above them, those that didn't react quickly enough fell to the blade of the angel of death that they had unfortunately ignored in front of them. Those that did respond quicker than their fellow, now late compatriots, doubled their defense and pulled back.

The spearhead that was Louise merely laughed at them, diving into the group and smashing through any and all defense. Magic barely touched her and melee weapons bounced off as her Dragonhide spell denied them their blood. The few things that actually left wounds hissed and sputtered as the enchantments adorning her clothing healed in seconds what would have taken days or weeks.

Louise on the other hand was not so gentle nor forgiving in her touch. Another Mass Paralysis expanded outwards dropping dozens of mages and soldiers alike. From above, blades of air rained down and smote them where they fell, sending up a geyser of blood and gore. Yet, through it all not a single drop of blood touched Louise, as if it didn't want to taint her with it's filth. Those few enemy soldiers observant enough to notice this felt their hearts chill as Louise turned on them, preparing her sword yet again.

She rejoined battle, cutting a swath of destruction though her opponents, never seeming to tire, never showing weakness even in the face of overwhelming numbers. She looked at those numbers and scoffed, holding her head high as she unleashed her wrath upon those that sought to defeat her, even going so far as to cast a massive explosion spell over the main encampment, silencing over a thousand souls in moments.

Yes, Louise would likely never understand why these people looked to her the way they did or why they recorded her words and triumphs into the history books but there was one thing she did know. She would come to know the title that her people gave her, the title that stood above all others; beyond a Saint, beyond the Second Founder, beyond even the Queen of Halkeginia in her later years when the Brimmeric nations were brought together into one unified country for the first time in six thousand years.

Swords and muskets barely worked, magic even less so, never tiring, never surrendering. It was no wonder they looked up to her as a vengeful archangel, unflinching in her duty as she carved her legend across the continent.

The world would remember her name

_Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière..._

The world would remember her title

_The Dauntless._

_**-ooo-**_

_**Ok. I feel like a complete and total badass right now... please, give me a moment to bask in it.**_

_**...**_

_**...**_

_**...**_

_**Ahhhhh... okay, basking done.**_

_**I'd like to point out that this ISN'T a game in this setting. I attempted to make the rules that Skyrim spells, perks and ability's play by, transfer over into a non-game setting. So things like a limit on jewelry, the nature of perks, making up a 'bag of holding' that allows you to carry the ungodly amount of things you can normally carry in-game, the ability to no sell a golem due to block and magic resistance and a couple other things were tweaked to fit this story.**_

_**As for the Louise-Wales interaction. Yes, you can eat rat. No, I wouldn't eat one wandering around a city, those eat absolutely 'anything.' There are however, places that sell rats purposely raised on grains for human consumption. As for rats used in potions... well, Skeevers. This is another one of those game mechanics things that I mentioned in the paragraph above. As for snake, that shit is delicious yo! Just gotta make sure you get all the organs out of it and for the love of the Lord Almighty just make sure you cut off the head first before you mess with any of it, no need for anyone to be accidentally envenomed.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ok I promised some things to some people about maybe perhaps, making a chapter out of one of their ideas. This isn't one of their idea's but this wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out then posted it. THIS IS VERY VERY DARK. Though there IS a light at the end of the tunnel, so if that first line doesn't catch your interest, read until the end to make assumptions. There, now that that's out of the way, I got this particular chapter idea from Disowned by Hemingway61. **_

_**Yes I kind of swiped the general idea from him, no I didn't copy it verbatim as this isn't strictly speaking a crossover. -BTW Take this as a fic o' the day and show the guy/girl some love because it's a dishonored crossover and it shows some promise.- The Louise in his story was the kind that just sort of feared her parents and what her life would hold after she failed. MY Louise, is quite a bit different. I wanted her to be woman I know she can be, just that everyone puts her down because she can't use normal magic. The girl canonically blows a HOLE in a wall that's said to be enchanted by a number of square class earth mages. EFFORTLESSLY blowing a hole in something that would likely give Karin a run for her money. **_

_**You cant tell me that Louise hasn't done at least some of what I'm going to mention in this story. The girl is too stubborn not to try anything and everything to make what she has work.**_

_**But beyond that, when you hit rock bottom there's only one way to go from there, and that's up.**_

_**As this is going to be a bit depressing expect there to be some seriously dark themes here, including-**_

_**Warnings: Possible suicide trigger, cutting trigger, very very emo trigger, this is dark for a reason people. And lets not forget some language and suggestive themes just to be safe.**_

_**Type:Snippit**_

_**So without further ado.**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Zero no Tsukaima, that belongs to the respective owners.**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 4: Home.**_

Pale red eyes stared off into space as the carriage rolled to it's final stop.

Louise glanced out the window at the Valliere estates, eyes cold and lifeless.

She had failed... failed for the final time. Her last chance at victory had ended in failure as the Familiar Summoning Ritual sputtered and died for the final try, the final chance that Professor Colbert had given her.

And now she was home... _home_... home? She repeated the word countless times until it ceased to have meaning. Was this really her home? The cream colored walls had looked so safe when she was a child now seemed as impenetrable and frightening as the castle walls surround the academy.

The carriage creaked to a halt as the horse whinnied animatedly.

'End of the line.' Louise thought numbly, walking out the door as if all the cheer had left the world and all that was left was cold unflinching darkness. The servants murmured to themselves as they kept their distance, though Louise did hear the occasional hint of fear, not for themselves but for the tired, haunted little girl that had always seemed so full of life when she had lived here.

Now Louise was gone, replaced with the broken remains of a young girl who was lost at sea, the cold waters of responsibility bringing her down into a cold embrace, with no evidence of her passing but the small trail of bubbles to mark her passage into the abyss.

Vaguely, Louise heard the opening of the doors to her _home-home-home. _Again she repeated the word, a litany against the horrors of the world. She would find her sanctuary here, or not at all. Off in the distance, a crash of thunder sounded.

As Louise put one step in front of the other, she quietly considered her life... as uneventful as it was, in the grand scheme of things her life barely accounted for a single drop in the great sea of time. But it was her life, a life she had been determined to keep... but now... now she wasn't sure... she wasn't sure of anything...

And then she found herself in the middle of the foyer, staring blankly at those that had assembled. All of her family was here, each looking at her with mixed emotions, the most welcome of which was Cattleya's look of concern as she noted her sisters defeated eyes.

"I'm very disappointed in you Louise." That had been the first words out of her mother's mouth... and those were the death knell to whatever future the girl thought she had. She didn't even pay attention as they moved further into the mansion to discuss her future, simply following behind mechanically.

It wasn't until talk of marriage entered into the conversation that Louise returned somewhat to find them talking about _HER marriage._ A small bit of hope filled her then, that she wouldn't be cast out of her _home home home._ Again those words came to her, quickly losing their meaning to the girl.

But then indignity welled it's ugly head and she found a measure of outrage. "I don't want to marry Viscount Wardes." She muttered quietly, to her mother and father it might as well have been her screaming at them.

The Duke's face aged drastically and a sigh escaped his lips. "I'm afraid, you do not have a choice, daughter I've already made the arrangements."

Her mother walked forward to stand barely an arms length from the girl. "You do not understand the position you've put us in, Louise. Your failures have not gone unnoticed by the other family's, by now even the crown has probably heard of it. It is quite possible that we've lost much of the respect we once held in the courts, such is the nature of your failure."

Louise looked up into her mother's eyes, her expression blank, eyes lifeless. She hoped there would be a shred of love or acceptance there, even concern or sadness would have been acceptable as they at least displayed an attachment to her, that her mother at least cared for her on some level.

There wasn't anything. Nothing. No emotion at all but cold, hard disappointment; The Rule of Steel, to keep all unnecessary emotion locked away unless required. The fact that she had let nothing out spoke more than anyone there realized.

_Home home home. _The words radiated through her head again as she stared past her mother at her two sisters, seeing disappointment on Eleanore's face and the quiet sadness of Cattleya. She made one last attempt at dissuading her parents. "I'm sorry but I can't marry him." A small twitch was felt on her cheek, it took her many moments to realize that the twitch was actually a burning sensation, a tingling burn that could only come from...

Louise stared hollowly at her mothers raised hand, slightly red from it's impact with her face. Her mother had struck her... her mother had never struck her in any other way than to discipline and even then only on the bottom and when she was very young. Her mother had slapped her...

Something broke within Louise then, something that in later years would have been her saving grace, her anchor against the cruel world. It is said in stressful situations when lives are at stake, men and women have the capacity to lift or move objects many times their own weight. Packed within Louise's compact and wiry form stood muscle, built in the crucible of detention after having to clean up her own countless messes as well as her own physical training, improving the body as well as the mind. It was this muscle that dropped it's chemical payload within Louise's system, supercharging her reaction speed, her reflexes, and of course-

Her strength.

It was such a simple thing, when she looked back on it. The front of her mother's shirt had such a nice grip to it, a perfect handhold for her tiny fist. Likewise, her mothers stomach looked far too inviting, she could almost remember the warmth of her womb. All Louise wanted to do was crawl back in and hide from the world, in absence of that, she did the next best thing and _punched_ her mother in the stomach As. Hard. As. She. Fucking. Could!

Her mother's eyes widened as she felt herself be drawn forward, the strength in her daughters arms unnatural as her floating ribs creaked under the force of the blow. Despite herself, the woman bent over, bringing her eyes even with her daughter's who looked into them with a manic gleam, seemingly looking through her.

Louise felt giddy, she had ben able to return some of herself to her mother, and now, that beautiful chin was in front of her, the chin she had always been fascinated by with it's firm set and delightful scowl. Louise hated that scowl. She corrected it. A satisfying crack met her fist -whether it was her hand or her mother's jaw was unknown- as well as a distinct pop as several teeth were knocked loose. Louise let go of her mother then, planting a dainty foot into the woman's solar plexus and _pushing _forward. Karin the Heavy Wind was sent to the ground in a heap, jaw cracked, several teeth broken, hairline fractures in three ribs and a bruised diaphragm that made it hard for her to breath.

In the absolute silence that followed that, the woman's groans of pain were rather poignant.

In that silence, Louise spoke. "It's funny." She mumbled to herself. "I try so hard and yet no one recognizes what I actually do." She stared off into space, fascinated by a particularly interesting piece of crown molding. "No one ever looks at the minor achievements, they only want results in large quantity, as if they expect everyone to be a prodigy." Her eyes found her fathers, then her mothers, who happened to be glaring at her with baleful, pain filled eyes. She didn't know a damn thing about pain! What was a small pain of the body, compared to the all encompassing pain of the mind? The mental torment that ached even when she was unconscious, something she couldn't hide from even in the sanctity of her mind.

Her world WAS pain!

"Even you all, my supposed family, looked at me like that, never once asking what I _could _do, only what I _should _do." A hollow chuckle escaped her lips, sounding as inhuman as it looked on the petite girls emotionless face.

"You all call me incompetent but have any of you ever read so much that your eyes bleed? Have you ever written so much that the skin of your fingers was peeled back to drip blood on parchment?" She looked to Eleanore, the most studious of her family. "I've spent days without sleep, pouring over every tome in the library that I could get my hands on, trying to find some way to fix my magic. And then wrote a twenty page essay on _each and every book there_ as a reference, then I referenced _every_ book there _against each other _to try and make sense of it all. In my quest to better myself I _memorized_ the _entire_ academy library, If you were to go in and call out a random name of a book, I could name any and all passages from it verbatim. As long as no one has changed the order in the last two weeks, I could name off all of them on the shelves, I've even gone back there from time to time just to look at the spines and refresh my memory of all of them. In this, I was labeled a genius by Professor Colbert, who wished he had someone of my intelligence working with him."

A hand went to her pockets and a small jingle filled the air. "Part of my monthly allowance went to the nurse so that every night I'd have a healing potion set by my bed, to repair the damage to my eyes and fingers." Thunder rolled outside, followed by the sound of wind.

A small rasp escaped her voice then and she laughed at it's fortuitous appearance. "Have you ever recited an aria for a spell so often that your voice grew hoarse and your lungs began to hurt?" She looked at her father then, who would appreciate her dedication to this at least. "During long walks in the halls or breaks between classes I would whisper the spells I knew and force myself to speak them faster and slower, higher and lower, in ways that would possibly strain the limits of the human voice... and on many occasions, did just that. The result? With such a practiced voice I could speak chants twice as fast as even the most studious of prodigy's at the academy. When I focused on speaking only the words and not the elements I could weave my explosions without even speaking the spell!" She smiled. "I was also told I have a lovely singing voice by a young maid, Siesta was her name, a generous and loving woman who I had the pleasure of meeting."

Another jingle of her money pouch. "Another portion of my allowance went towards a potion to fix the damage to my throat. By this point, with all the repairs I had to pay for, I was skipping meals, unable to afford some of the more expensive food and I ended up eating bread or even going to bed hungry on more than one occasion, in hindsight, that's probably why I'm still so small." Cattleya let out a small gasp of horror, even her father and Eleanore looked disturbed by what they were being told... Her mother... her mother remained silent, staring at her with an unreadable expression, cradling her jaw in her hand.

"And what's even more funny?" Louise nearly doubled over then in laughter, though the broken noise sounded like fingernails on chalkboard. "When Siesta found out I was skipping meals, she was horrified. She grabbed me by the arm, ignoring all forms of propriety to take me to the kitchens and explain to the head chef about what was happening. His response? He gave me a portion of his own meal, in fact, Siesta did as well." Louise ran a hand through her hair. "Commoners, I could see in their eyes that the hated that term, they hated the nobility for using it to describe them but even with all their hatred, they took one look at me and my scrawny body and didn't even hesitate. In a school _full_ of my fellow nobles, it was two plebeians who had the decency to share what they had with me, to give something of themselves for no other reason than that they could, because it was the right thing to do."

Louise looked at her mother then, eyes hollow and devoid of emotion. "Have any of you ever cast so many spells that the very inside of your body felt on fire? I don't know how many times I spirited myself away into the forest to practice my magic for long hours into the night, collapsing on the ground in willpower exhaustion." A small smile formed as she pulled out her wand, flicking it several times and a series of pops echoed in the room. "And when it came to explosions I forced myself to learn to make them do what I wanted, whatever I willed it to do. It was a minor comfort, something to amuse myself and distract me from my failures." She demonstrated this by creating a puff of smoke, then puffing it outward in a kaleidoscope with a small low pressure explosion. This was followed by a series of rapid pops like that of a strand of fire crackers, making the ears of several of the rooms' occupants ring.

"I even found a friend out there in the forest." Louise's smile turned bittersweet. "A small stray puppy that looked no older than a few months had wandered into the clearing that I used to practice magic. It approached me hesitantly, but after a few offerings of food, the little guy warmed up to me." Another laugh, this time somewhat happy. "I named him Hope, whether out of some misguided and desperate plea or an actual heartfelt wish, I don't know. For two months I told him my secrets, explained away all my insecurities, hatred and self loathing as my failures stacked on top of failures." Her voice turned cheeky. "And like a good friend, he never told a soul."

A cold chill passed through the mansion.

"He was such a good friend, he even took my secrets to the grave." A shiver went up the spines of Louise's sisters, her father felt an involuntary intake of air and her mother... her mother actually looked sad.

A flash of lightning arced outside, followed by thunder sending an involuntary jolt through each occupant. Louise didn't so much as flinch as a harsh laugh left her throat. "It's still so funny that out of an entire academy of nobles, the beings I count as best friends are two commoners and a dog... I still remember the day my Hope was crushed under the callous spell of some random no name earth mage." Tears fell down her cheeks as she remember the day. "He even saw him there but like some bug underneath his shoe, the bastard simply finished his spell anyway and all that was left of my Hope was a bloody red smear in the dirt."

A small hand reached up to rub the tears from tired eyes. "I still feel that rather poignant reminder of my own exercise in futility... it was foolish to hope... And after my Hope died, I learned to _hate _dogs." Another shiver passed around the group at the sheer loathing in the little girls words. "I _still_ hate that word, I still hate the sounds of their barking, I hate the mangy good for nothing mongrels that gave me hope but so cruelly took it away."

Her voice took on the barest whisper of sound. "Have any of you ever considered just ending it all and taking the cowards way out?"

A gasp came from Cattleya. "Louise... you... you didn't...

The young pinkette snorted "I kept it from everyone, but there were times when pain was the only escape, the only thing that made me feel alive. I didn't attempt anything drastic or mar my body if that's what you're asking." Her eyes dulled further, as if remembering a painful memory. "But that doesn't mean that I didn't revel in the mental pain at times, the coldest comfort I had, to utterly crush myself just to make another part of me feel better. The Nurse called it a separate personality, a fracture of the mind that I used to vent my frustrations. I had her swear on her title of nobility not to reveal that to anyone, to take that information to her grave for as long as I remained a noble." Louise let out a small depreciating chuckle. "Bless the woman's soul, she kept it, is still probably keeping it and will probably keep it long after the fact too."

Louise glanced out the window, musing at the brewing storm clouds. "And this final humor, the final cruel joke that life has played on me." There was no emotion, not a single thing, Louise's tone was completely dead. Cattleya had tears in her eyes then, Eleanore looked stricken, her father and mother even moreso.

"It wasn't until the I reached the very bottom, that I saw how beautiful the world is." Again lightning cracked and thunder crashed, though this time Louise looked strangely peaceful. On the way back Home." _Home home home. _"The colors of the world seemed so vibrant, so pure and clean, like I'd been looking through a dirty window all these years." Louise walked towards the door then, reaching out for the door knob with the hand not holding her wand.

To Cattleya, it looked too much like a final goodbye, a last farewell. She opened her mouth to call out to her sister, to reconsider.

_**"Don't."**_ The word came from Louise in the same cold, emotionless tone as before... but the way it was said... A cold sweat appeared on the backs of everyone in the room. A few involuntary inhales of air. And in Karin's case, the woman's eyes dilated in fear as the primal, almost inhuman voice brushed against the primitive part of her brain; a subconscious instinct that tells you when you're in the face of a superior predator and the fight or flight response kicks in. Unfortunately for Karin, she was bolted to the floor, unable to move as a very real feeling of death washed over her.

Louise turned back to the group, Cattleya in particular. "Don't say a word." Louise spoke again, thankfully not tapping into whatever primal voice she had momentarily channeled. In exchange however, _Power_ arced from her hands.

Pure, unlimited, unadulterated _POWER._

And the doors behind her ceased to exist, along with most of the wall with it. Looking through the hole, the family found, to their horror, that a large portion of the foyer was also missing, including the far wall to the outside. Beyond that there was a several hundred foot long ditch of land to the forest edge that was perfectly smooth, as if it was never there to begin with. A fine powder was seen floating in the wind before the rain washed away such filth, it was as if an explosion had happened so suddenly and so violently as to _suck_ everything in it's path out into the rainstorm, vaporizing it in the process. Even the sound such an act would make didn't escape the vortex as pure willpower created, what most scientists of the modern age would agree, was a singularity. For only a moment, a black hole formed in a single dimension along an axis, turning everything in it's path into dust, with Louise as it's origin point.

A distinct smell of ozone filled the air as the sound and vision of rain came through the hole. "Look at it." Louise remarked with a small hint of pride. "Even now, when the world seems at it's darkest, the outside is so much more vibrant and clean." She turned to her father then, looking the man in the eyes. "You said earlier that I didn't have a choice father... that wasn't entirely true." She looked away, out into the rain. "Everyone has a choice. Ironically I was too much of a coward to take the cowards way out... and despite what you might say, despite the promises you make of how good it will be for me, I will never, _ever_ choose a life that has me spread my legs for some old man who cares nothing about me." A small spark filled her eyes, as she directed a glare at her father. "A man who would treat me as a bauble, a toy to play with and set aside at his leisure. I will not choose a life where the only comfort and love that I have would be the few measly years with my children before they were taken away from me, for fear that my failures would rub off on them; If I'm even given that measure of pity."

She shook her head. "If the choice is between a life of luxury in a cold, colorless world or to live in poverty with those that I care about, looking at the bright, vibrant world unclouded by misery..." She turned to her family, for the final time. "I'd rather be poor and free, than rich and in chains... at least the world I'd live in would have color, instead of shades of black and white." And without another word, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière left the her family estates, taking a paltry few coins, her cloak at the door and what clothes she had on her back out into the wide world, the rain washing away the filth of her old life.

She walked for hours on end, feeling lighter with each step she took, as if she were pouring out the hatred, self loathing and all the other negative emotions that had filled her up for years, leaving her empty as the day she was born. It was a cold feeling, to feel yourself slipping away like that, to feel everything you were, everything you could have been, simply vanish as if it no longer mattered. She took one step outside the bounds of the Valliere lands, marked by a small sign that stated as such and stopped. Her eyes widened as she felt a warmth she'd never known on her face. Looking up, she noticed that the storm had moved past allowing the sun to shine through. The world lit up in front of her face, as if everything were made of diamonds and gold, birds and other small animals made their way out of their hidey holes to sing their happiness to the world, happy that they had survived another day, simply finding joy in the simplest of things.

Taking a deep breath, moisture too salty to be rain dripping down her cheeks, the girl let out a blood curdling howl that echoed loudly out into the forests, silencing everything around for miles. After releasing every ounce of air in her body, the girl collapsed to her knees.

_Home home home. _ Again those words repeated in her mind but this time they no longer lost their meaning, she found that each time she heard the word, it would call out to a piece of her surroundings. _Home_; the trees, so alive and wonderful. _Home_; the sky, so vast and blue. _Home_; the earth underneath her feet, so solid and reassuring.

Everything seemed to fall into place then, as if her view of the world around her shifted slightly to the left and made far more sense to her.

The tree's were the walls and doors that hindered her only if she let them. The sky was the ceiling that protected and nurtured her. The earth was the floor that comforted and mothered her. The animals, who's voices were just now returning were her new family, single minded but innocent.

The entire wide, wide world was her _Home_

She looked up at the sun again, a smile on her lips

And it was _Beautiful_.

_**-ooo-**_

_**...**_

_**...**_

_**Completely serious, this is one of the few times I've cried while rereading something that I've written. rereading this right before I published it, I misted up near the middle, during Louise's speech, but that final word... the final line of the story, I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I honestly don't have any words for that.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**WELL HELLO AGAIN!**_

_**Again, sorry for not posting that chapter I'm working on Nix... I'm still working on it, it's just my muse doesn't like me sometimes and I'd already started this chapter when you asked me... so yeah... I'll work on it next.**_

_**This is the next chapter of A Familiar Assortment and we have one of those 'after story' stories, in a similar vein to: **_The Path of Zero by ariados26 _** Which shows the story AFTER everything takes place.**_

_**And in this story Louise got reverse summoned to the .Hack GU verse to take Haseo's place. And guess what? Lesbian Louise is BACK BITCHES! And she has herself a harem, read on to find out who.**_

_**Since this takes place AFTER the games, expect massive spoilers for the Dot Hack GU games and anime. ESPECIALLY near the middle as that's a short summary of the three games explained to Osmond and Colbert, as well as to those of you who have only a cursory knowledge of the GU series or dot hack in general. So, if you're at any point planning to play the games or watch the anime, I'd steer clear of this chapter until you finish them.**_

_**Since this is basically the epilogue/segue into another story, expect things out of the blue that would normally make sense if you had read the story before this. Since that story doesn't exist, you'll have to play along. I'll explain what I can, but having only a decent knowledge of the .hack GU games and anime would get you through most of it. So those who don't know what the hell I'm talking about... just nod your head and smile.**_

_**Warnings: Suicide trigger (possibly, merely mentioned) Violence, Language, Sexy themes, Futa Louise, Dual gender Harem Louise.**_

_**Type:Abridgelet.**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I Don't own the .hack franchise or the Familiar of zero franchise, those belong to their respective owners**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 5: An eccentric family built on electric means**_

Louise breathed deeply, staring at the Tri Edge mark at the back of the Hulle Granz Cathedral, the place where it all started. Aura, who was hovering off to the side along with her three Azure knights, was strangely solemn.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" The girl whispered quietly. "I am unsure if I will ever be able to open this again."

"It's my home." Louise smiled sadly. "And I've been away from it for far too long."

"Very well." Aura responded morosely raising her hands up in the air and calling upon the her powers to rip a hole in the fabric of The World. In front of the dais a large, almost all encompassing green portal formed. Aura's tone turned bittersweet as she looked beyond the young Valliere. "You may have chosen this path, but I believe those behind you may wish to say goodbye to you first. I do not think they would appreciate you leaving without a word."

Louise spun in place, immediately noting a large number of people behind her.

"Think you could sneak off without saying goodbye?" Silibus remarked, cheekily rubbing his nose with a finger.

"Ye-yeah." Gaspard sniffled. "How could you just up and leave without telling us?"

Her friends and her comrades, they had all come to see her off, to say goodbye. A small, sad smile formed on Louise's lips. "I didn't want my last memories of you to be stained with tears." She hung her head and let out a small chuckle. "I should have known better, you all wouldn't let me go that easily."

"Of course not brat." Antares crossed his arms and let out a hearty laugh. "No apprentice of mine is going to run off for good without saying goodbye."

"Yeah, but what happens when the apprentice surpasses the master." Matsu responded cheekily.

"Bah." Antares waved it away. "I still got a few tricks up my sleeves, until she learns those she'll always be my pupil."

"It is quite fortunate though that we caught her when we did." Zelkova remarked wryly. "I wouldn't want the person I trusted with the Xth form to run off without a word or two."

"Yes Lord Zelkova." Kaede spoke quietly. "Truly, Louise has yet to learn to curb her impulsiveness."

Louise couldn't help it. She laughed. She laughed long and hard at the interplay of her friends, of her comrades... and tentatively, the family that she never knew she had.

Well aren't you just barrel of laughs." Kuhn piped up. "And here I thought you only knew tsundere anger and rage."

"Louise isn't like that and you know it." Sakubo turned to Louise and blushed. "By the way, Saku want's you to know she doesn't hate you anymore Louise."

Taken aback, Louise blinked several times as if registering how insane such a comment was when the adorable little alternate personality had hated her guts since... well, since they'd met. Unable to really come up with anything better, she simply smiled. "Tell Saku that it really means a lot for me to hear that and that I shall always consider her a good friend, despite our... disagreements."

It went much like that, with little bits of small talk, hesitant goodbyes that at the same time weren't goodbyes and a number of other conversations that tried to hold the conversation as long as possible.

Finally, Louise turned to the portal. "I think it's about that time..."

"Do you really have to go?" Silibus asked quietly. "We'd come to see you here in The World when we could. You know that, right?"

Louise looked over her shoulder at the teen. "I can't put it off any longer, I know my mother has probably razed half the continent by now looking for me."

"Ah..." He lowered his head. "I see, I guess it's for the best. It must be nice... having a mother as caring as her."

Quite a few of the group shifted uncomfortably at that, seven in particular.

"I don't mean to interrupt." Aura cleared her throat slightly, drawing their attention. "But the portal can handle more than one person, should anyone wish to go with Louise."

"Seriously?" Kuhn blinked, glancing from the portal to Aura and back again. "That's pretty sweet. Would we remain in character when we got there? Would be pretty cool to have this character as my body, then I'd get all the ladies like Louise!" He let out a fake evil laugh before he was cut off by a sharp whack up side the head by one of said ladies present.

Aura seemed pensive for a moment before nodding. "From my understanding, yes, you would keep the bodies you are using now. I do not know what would happen to your bodies outside of The World but your minds should inhabit the bodies you are using now if you do indeed follow Louise through."

For a moment, no one spoke, many of them gave the portal a look of longing as they thought of the grand adventures they could have simply by becoming the characters that they portrayed. Then the thought of their family, the loved ones they'd leave behind made most of them immediately moved back from the portal.

All but seven of her comrades, whom stepped forward.

"I have nothing of importance in the real world" Endrance replied wistfully. "The only time I ever feel alive now is when I'm with you my love. I will follow you through without hesitation or regret."

"I know it seems like I'm running away from my problems with my parents." Atoli rubbed her wrists self consciously, no doubt rubbing the scars in real life where she had tried to end her own life on several occasions. "But I love you too much to let you go Louise. You've done so much for me... I'd be happy to go with you to your world." Atoli, looked away with tears in her eyes and a deep blush on her face.

"My parents cared more about themselves then they ever cared about me." Bordeaux growled. "Even now after they split up they never really looked at me as anything more than a child." Her eyes softened as she stared at Louise. "You're the only person who's ever shown me that bit of love and respect, you better damn well believe I'll follow you wherever you go!"

Alkaid rolled her eyes. "Classic Yandere response."

"Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, little miss Tsundere." Kuhn snickered from behind his nice, safe human shield. Aka Piros the Third.

A tick mark appeared on Alkaid's head. "Bite me you womanizing bastard!"

Pi stepped forward as Alkaid huffed and turned her back on Kuhn. "I don't exactly have a social life." She replied, nervously rubbing the back of her neck with an embarrassed blush. "I am, after all, quite the workaholic..." She cleared her throat when she noticed the gaze of the others on her, those not used to seeing the straight laced and together woman looking so flustered. "Anyway, I wouldn't lose much going along with you and maybe I could do a bit of good in that world you've talked so much about."

Shino sighed sadly. "I didn't have much longer in the real world anyway. After waking up from my coma, I found that my illness was in even worse condition than before... the doctors didn't give me long. They said there was a very slim chance that I could be healed but... I want to see your world Louise, feel it on my skin rather than live a fantasy in here or a sickly reality out there..." She trailed off and remained silent after that.

Tabby rubbed her hand together as the others around her gave their reasons, it was likely a nervous tick. "I don't have many plans IRL since I never had a really good relationship with my family. I was thinking that I could maybe become a nurse to help out Shino but... since she's going with you..." She looked over at Shino and blushed when she noticed that the girl was looking her way as well. Apparently there was more to their relationship than just 'good friends.' Finally it seemed that her cat like curiosity won out and she pointed forward like an explorer on an adventure. "Ah what the heck, count me in too!"

"Hell yeah! I agree with the crazy cat lady" Alkaid hooted. "Besides, I told you I wouldn't ever leave you alone, Zero." The twin blade smirked as Louise scowled at the nickname. Only she could get away with calling her that and she would milk it as much as possible. "I don't really have any good friends IRL and my family is distant with me at best, it's kinda why I spent so much time playing The World." She looked down at her feet, her shoulders slumping. "They would miss me, I know that... our family and friends would miss all of us... but just this once I want to be selfish... just this once I want to choose my own way in life rather than have it decided for me!" Her eyes rose up, a fire lit in them. "And I'm choosing you, don't care if I have to share either, we figured all that out when we all decided to marry you." She looked at each of the other girls in turn who all nodded in agreement, apparently they had spoken quite a bit on the topic beforehand.

"All of you..." Louise's scowl evened out as tears welled up in her eyes. She looked around at all the people who had made her the woman that she was, a tingle of love and affection bubbling her spine. It made her happy that they'd choose her... but it also hurt, knowing that they would give up all they knew just to be with her.

"Hey, don't get all sappy on us." Kuhn joked. "Like little miss tsundere said, it's their decision. Besides, you did end up marrying all of them in-game so they are 'technically' your wiv... er spouses?" His face screwed up a bit when he remembered Endrance wasn't a girl, though with the way he looked and acted it was hard to remember that fact. "Still, I'm surprised Yata was able to convince the suits at CC Corp to go along with that. It's being called 'The First Group Marriage in MMO History.' all over the net."

"Hmph. Yes, it was a tad bit difficult to pull off."

"Gaahhh!" Kuhn nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun in place to find Yata right behind him. "Dammit old man, give me some warning before you do that. I swear, nearly gave me a heart attack..."

Yata ignored him. "But you did mention to me that it would be hard for you to choose between them if it came down to it and they-" He gave the girls a look, though he passed over Endrance as he had been fine with sharing from the begriming. "-Might have mentioned to me something similar" He pushed his glasses further up his nose. "So I thought it wise-" A uncharacteristic smirk crossed his face. "-to provide you with the Tenchi Solution."

Off to the side Pi groaned in annoyance. "You just had to bring that up, didn't you?"

Yata glanced over at Pi with an eyebrow raised. "It seemed fitting considering the circumstances don't you think?" He motioned to the portal that remained floating behind the group. "A portal to a world of magic, _real magic_." He nodded to the group surrounding Louise. "A group of star crossed women who couldn't decide between them who deserved the hero- hrm excuse me, the _heroine_ of the story and when given the chance to go back with her to her home, chose so despite the fact that it was highly possibly that they would never return? Why _yes_, I do believe that now is a perfect time to bring it up."

Pi's expression soured. "I liked you better when you were aloof and mysterious."

"Then you clearly never saw him before he took up his job at CC corp. He always did have a dry wit."

Everyone in the cathedral turned to the entrance which two people walked through, two people who were immediately recognizable.

"Ovan, Aina." Louise asked, surprise filling her voice. "You're back!?"

Ovan smiled that mysterious smile of his. "In a limited form, but yes, I'm back." His expression flattened. "I've had better days, my body being in a coma after all... but as long as Aina is here with me, I'll manage."

Louise's face fell. "So you weren't able to free yourself after all?"

Ovan shrugged. "Not yet, but it was my hope that I would be able to, eventually." His glasses caught the little bit of light in the cathedral, making them flash ominously. "However... I think I might actually take my chances with that portals of yours." He wrapped an arm around Aina. "The both of us actually."

The pinkette's eyes snapped up, her mouth hanging open in shock. "You want to what?"

"Go through that portal to your world." He replied, unfazed by Louise's apparent disbelief. "We can't go back to the real world, our home is no longer our home." Several of Louise's lovers winced at Ovans words and tone, feeling them far too close to heart. "Aina here was hospitalized with an illness that is all but terminal, her becoming a lost one only aggitated the illness to where... I'm not sure if she'll live long enough to see me return to my body."

He sighed then, long and deep. "As for myself; I have lost my job, my credibility and very possibly my life. If it were only a coma and I could eventually restore myself then that might have been fine but after my time running from the authorities and spending all my time searching for a way to free Aina... well, I would be unable to pay for my livelihood and her medical expenses as well. In a way, there is no action that I can take that would save both of us and have a decent livelihood. " He nodded to the portal in front of him. "Aside from starting fresh in greener pastures."

"So after all the work we've done..." Yata trailed off with a sigh. "I guess it's true, in war there are no victors. We may have defeated AIDA and Cubia but people are still suffering from the aftermath."

"It could have been worse." Ovan waved the Raven Guild leader's morose attitude off. "I'm here now, with my sister and the possibility for us to fufill our greatest desire is right behind Louise."

"Your greatest desire?" Louise asked quietly.

"To be able to live with each other in the real world." Ovan replied with a tone of finality. "Your world may not be Earth... it might not even be remotely like our world... but I'm willing to take the risk to be with my sister in the flesh and blood without having to worry about her dying a premature death."

"Ovan..."

"Regardless." Like Yata, the man adjusted his glasses. "We're not going through without a plan, nor empty handed." The man pulled a book out of his inventory. "This is a cheat item that contains the contents of a real world book, I've made hundreds of these books while lost in the Sea of Data for just this possibility."

"You really thought that far ahead?" Louise muttered dumbly, to have lead her along as much as he did. Louise would be lying if she wasn't impressed and a tad bit pissed off at the man... but she wouldn't deny him the chance of a new life if he wished for one.

"Yes." He nodded." I've always been fascinated with your story, it wasn't until I met Aura in the Sea of Data and she explained how you arrived here that I truly devoted all my time into this." He pulled a few more books from his inventory to scan through them. "This collection covers a vast number of subjects, as many of the sciences and industries that I could find, from pre-industrial all the way to the modern age. It is my belief that we can spark an industrial revolution and have your people up to the standards of humanity on this side of the portal within a couple of generations. Indeed, we might even be able to see technology grow alongside magic and become a society that our's can only ever hope to be."

Ovan held up his hand and several more books came forth, seven of them in fact. "These books are cheat items as well; They max your character level to the cap and unlock all the abilities inherent to your job, extend your inventory to Nine-hundred and ninety-nine, constantly keep the items in your inventory at the max ninety-nine and max's your currency to a ludicrous amount. Aina and I have already used ours." He held the books out for them. "Most of this was compiled by myself but a few things I had help on." The man glanced to the side at Zelkova who was grinning cheekily.

"You're welcome Ovan." The small Guild Leader replied with a bow. "It always fills my heart with joy to assist a fellow player in need, it's why I started Moon Tree after all."

"Indeed." He replied with a small chuckle. "With you all leaving, I think it would be wise to use these and prepare yourselves for the world we're about to enter. If we're in luck and we _do_ keep our bodies from The World, we may be able to do things that normal humans cannot because of our characters' abilities."

Those who were planning to go with Louise, along with Louise herself stared at the books carefully. Slowly, one by one they took the books until Louise was the only one left.

"Ah, I have a special book for you." Ovan smiled mysteriously, pulling another book out of his inventory. "This one in particular edits your character on top of what the others do."

"Edit my character? ...Why?" Louise asked slowly, staring down at the strange book.

Ovan's smirk grew as he shifted to private chat and leaned in closer. "I know you've been in love with Shino since your first days in the Twilight Brigade and those other girls have only compounded upon the problem. If we do keep our in-game appearance when we cross over then that little book will make sure you have everything you need to keep them satisfied. Consider it a gift for helping me save Aina"

"Wha-?" Louise turned as pink as her hair as what he said dawned on her. The cheeky bastard really had thought this far ahead?

With that each of them used the cheat books. A swirl of white petals rose up as the books rewrote the data within their characters, changing their stats and in Louise's case, her character model...

"Aside from that." Ovan spoke smoothly, shifting back to open chat. "It might be best if you all wrote notes to the people you're going to leave behind, as well as tell everyone here who you are outside of the game. In case we ever do come back, we can meet you all again whether it be in the game or the real world. As for the letter, just a short note to tell them where you're going, not to worry and it might even be possible for you to return one day." He looked to Aura for confirmation. "Correct?"

The Goddess of The World nodded. "It is only a theory. Louise arrived here through a similar portal, which interacted with The World strangely. I only have enough power to open this one portal, however the portal that brought her here had to have come from her side as there is no magic on this one. If it was a natural occurrence or someone did so intentionally, there is always a chance that you all could return to Earth. This is merely conjecture on my part however."

Most of Louise's group looked at each for a few moments before nodding, then, the sound of headsets coming off could be heard over their mic's as they all went off for a few minutes to write what would probably be considered by many as a suicide note. Though only those that went with Louise or were here when they left would know the truth.

Minutes later, everything had been taken care of and the group of travelers stood only a few feet from the portal, back facing it and waving teary goodbye's to those friends that they would be leaving behind. It was a new step forward for all of them, a chance to start over. And for seven of them, a chance to start over with the love of their life who had made herself such a huge part of theirs, even if it was only just in a game. To them she and what she'd done for them was as real and as tangible as they were.

"She of fair eyes!"

Louise blinked to find Piros kneeling in front of her. While not one of her most liked friends, he was that annoying younger brother figure she'd always wished she'd had, if only to tease him.

"It has been a pleasure and an honor fighting by your side." He spoke solemnly, one of the few, if not the only times she'd ever heard him speak like that, which shocked her more than it rightfully should have. "As an original member of the Dot Hackers alongside Natsume-san and Yata-san-" That bit of information got a few raised eyebrows from those who knew of Piros' antics and the reputation of that legendary group. "-I give you my blessing as you go off into the unknown with your lovers." He stood and saluted the girl. "Fare thee well milady, may you have as much fortune in your world as you had in this one!" He then turned and walked back to the line of her friends, holding hands with Natsume who was near to crying.

With a deep inhale, Louise calmed herself. "Goodbye, all of you. I know we'll see each other again someday."

As one, Louise's group stepped back into the portal. The last thing they all saw were the faces of their friends and comrades. Gone away but not forgotten, with a small chance that they would see them again someday.

_**-ooo-**_

"Has everyone finished with their familiar summoning?" A elderly balding man called out to the gathered children who each had a magical animal of some sort next to them.

"I think that's everyone Mr. Colbert" A voice called from the back, one Kirche von Zerbst.

"Very good!" He smiled warmly. "It seems that this years Familiar Summoning Ritual has been an outstanding success!" He would have said more, would have ushered the children onward towards the castle proper but something stopped him. It was a tingle in the back of his spine, normally unnoticeable by an average mage but highly developed in those who had made the battlefield their home for a fair portion of their life. It was a sixth sense, a sense for magic and blade that warned those unaware that something was about to happen and you probably didn't want to be around when it did. Idly he noted that Kirche and Tabitha were both staring behind him with a tense expression on their face. Moments later the other children turned to look too.

Taking a deep breath, Colbert turned around. The last student had finished the ritual over a minute ago, so there shouldn't have been any reason for the summoning circle to go off... unless... unless something was using the summoning circle as a destination for their own transportation spell. Eyes widening, the man called for all of the students to get back. He stood between the group and the circle, conjuring a large fireball, easily triangle in size and holding it like a giant hovering beach ball over the tip of his staff.

The array of lines on the ground burned brighter, a distinct whine coming from them as if the power ushered through them was too powerful to contain the magic's used. That thought brought a shudder to Colbert's spine.

Finally, the building power reached the apex of it's charge and seemed to hold there for a moment. For a short few seconds, Colbert feared that whatever the circle was doing would probably reveal itself soon.

No sooner had he thought that had the circle promptly detonated like a giant smoke bomb, releasing dust and debris into the air and clouding his vision. Colbert knew better than to launch a fireball into the unknown and risk startling whatever had come through the circle. He felt more than saw Tabitha come up behind him and use her wind magic to clear the dust away. Good, he could definitely use the backup of a prodigy triangle class mage if things came to blows with whatever was within that smoke.

The smoke cleared completely.

Colbert found it hard for him not to stare at the ten strange individuals standing in the middle of what was left of the summoning circle. All of them appeared to be wearing an eclectic mix of clothing and armor, some of it practical, some what appeared to be for show as several of the woman among the group had far more skin showing than covered by said armor. Out of all of them, five stood out the most; One was the girl with the cat ears and nose off to the side, some manner of human-beast hybrid? The other was the two men, both handsome and beautiful beyond what was normal. Another was the young girl standing next to one of the men, holding onto his hand as if it were a lifeline; The final one however... that was the one that caught his attention almost immediately. It was honestly like looking thirty years into the past at the one woman who would forever hold his respect.

"K-karin?"

The pink haired girl reacted to the name and glanced up at him. For a moment there was a frown on her face, then something seemed to click as a spark of recognition filled her eyes. She looked around her, taking in the sights for a moment, a small smile on her face. After she appeared satisfied with the scenery, she turned and spoke a strange language to the others of her group that he couldn't understand.

In response the man with the small girl next to him let out a chortle, as if he was positively pleased with himself. The group then started to... touch themselves? And certainly not in the inappropriate way. It was almost as if they did not know the bodies that their heads were attached to. Oh, there we go, the large pink haired woman had grabbed her breasts and squeezed them, raising an eyebrow as if she were inspecting them for flaws.

It was then that the other pink haired girl, the one that looked like a young Karin, approached him. He half expected her to speak that strange language from before but was pleasantly surprised when she spoke Tristanian fluently. What surprised him more... well, more like shocked him honestly, was that the girl knew his name.

"Ah, Professor Colbert, it's good to see you again."

"Have... we met?" Aside from the fact that she looked like Karin, this woman looked far too at peace with herself to be the same woman who could shatter mirrors with a simple glare.

At that, the girls face scrunched in confusion. "I would expect so, I know it's been nearly a year since I was here last but I couldn't have changed that much that you wouldn't recognize me. You taught the basics of fire to my entire class last year."

Suddenly the reasons for this girl's appearance clicked in his mind. His mouth fell open in shock. "L-L-Louise!? Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere?" The girl beamed at the recognition, which only brought him further horror. "B-but... you've been missing for a year! You were given up for dead after we found nothing but your smoking shoes in your room, they even had burial services!"

At that declaration, Louise's face fell slack, momentarily forgetting the happiness from before. It was gone a moment later as Louise schooled her features into a frown. "One moment please." She turned to her companions and went through a quick string of words, most of which sounded agitated and strangely... anxious.

In response to that, the majority of the women and the blue haired male gathered around Louise and appeared to be consoling her, though the girl didn't seem to be crying, likely she had a good control over her emotions.

"Louise? Is that really you Louise?" Colbert assumed, from the sound of the voice, that it was probably Kirche who was speaking.

Louise, on the other hand seemed to be about to speak when one of the boys, a Malicorne if memory serves, scoffed at the name. "That explosion prone brat from first year?" He glanced over his shoulder at Kirche. "I thought she was taken out of school because she was a hazard. She certainly blew up enough classrooms to be labeled as one."

It started as a twitch, a twitch Colbert recognized, one that did not bode well for anyone. He would have stopped Louise then, held her back with a hand and a few calming words.

But then he got a good look at her eyes. They were _GOLD_! Changing from their off red to a metallic molten yellow. A shiver passed up the man's spine as Louise pulled herself free from the group of women and stalked closer to Malicorne who apparently didn't understand the danger he was in. Colbert silently prayed for the boy's well being, he was certainly not going to pick a fight with someone who moved with a stride of an apex predator; measured, deliberate and most of all, hungry. Another shiver rolled through his body.

Malcorne finally seemed to notice the woman he had just been insulting whom had closed the distance until they were only around four feet apart. "What do you want?" He spoke primly. "Have you come back here to try again at being a mage, or did you finally find your place as some uncouth mercenary?" He gave her armor a look of distaste. "And it certainly does nothing to flatter your figure, not that you had one to begin with-"

A tick mark formed on Louise's head for each insult thrown her way, the last being the most prominent. By now many of the other students had already backed away from the doomed fool and cleared a rather large circle around the two.

"-And another thing...hmm, what are you doing?" He finally noticed the strange atmosphere around him and that the others were looking at him with pity, as if he were some sacrificial... He then noticed that Louise's right hand had moved over her shoulder to grab something that wasn't there.

Then she pulled.

There was a flash of light and then Malicorne felt more than saw the blade held at his throat. Correction, make that _teeth_ of the blade at his throat. He gulped as he noticed the razor sharp spines sticking out from the strange club-sword combination.

That is until Louise did something with the hand holding the blade and the most awful noise any of the students had ever heard filled the air; like the buzz of bees but amplified by a factor of a thousand. The boy took an unconscious step back, which in hindsight most likely saved his life. The "sword" roared to life as the blades spun and blurred, creating the illusion of a blade while at the same time creating an ungodly sparking whine.

Faced with the demonic weapon almost claiming his life as it's own, Malicorne did the only sensible thing he had done all day. With a dull thump the boy hit the ground in a dead faint, urinating himself optional but much appreciated.

Several of the woman of Louise's group had facepalmed, muttering to themselves tiredly, as if this was a common occurence.

Oh how right that assessment was.

_**-ooo-**_

After that little display, Colbert had thought it wise to bring the group of... warriors to Osmond's office, if for no other reason than to have a square class mage of wind between him and his students, and Louise... he was beginning to suspect that even that wouldn't be enough to keep the volatile Valliere from him if he did something to set her off.

The group had then sat down, Louise at it's helm and explained what had happed to her over the last year.

It was actually a fairly simple, if fantastical explanation. Though Louise did tweak the truth of a few things here and there so as to keep the fact that the world she landed in was actually not real a secret.

Louise had tried to summon a familiar in her first year and accidentally got summoned herself to The World, which was the name of the planet the rest of her group was from. When she arrived in that world she was soon recruited into a local militia, otherwise known as a guild, after discovering her talent in that worlds spellcraft and swiftly put to the defense of the city to keep the ever present monster threat at bay.

The guild which she was placed was known as the Twilight Brigade and was so named for the mythical Key of the Twilight which they searched for in an attempt to stave off the monster menace. After a period of time in the guild, and a few dozen missions given by the guildmaster, one of the guildmembers was found unconscious, attacked by a phantom creature that put the girl under a curse that rendered her comatose.

Louise, who had become a dear friend to the girl, set out to find a cure and baring that, find the creature to deliver justice upon it. Another long period of time passed where many amazing and wonderful experiences were described, including Louise becoming a legend on par with her mother, gaining the moniker 'The Terror of Death.'

When questioned on the last several points, Louise simply responded that where she had gone it was a heavily militant society with three factions that were in a shadow war with each other.

Arvakv the Innovators; who were the human inventors of Steam Technology; fantastical creations that didn't use magic yet could destroy entire platoons of soldiers if given the chance.

Ogmios the Conservatives; Beastmen who followed the old teachings of the gods of The World and eschewed the newer innovations for the old magics, Crest technology.

Teutates the Pursuers; which were the group that picked Louise up. Comprised of both Human's and Beastmen, they sought power for power's sake, using both Steam and crest technology to further their own goals.

Each had a leader that governed them. The leader of the Teutates was the one who created the guild system and allow those guilds some autonomy to pursue their own goals, which was the very creed of the faction they served. In that society it was a common occurrence to simply name the children whatever name struck the parent's fancy and sending them off after a short childhood to defend the city.

When asked about family, Louise grimly explained that family names meant little in that world and if you wanted to distinguish yourself from someone of similar name then you had to fashion a title for yourself through feats of ability. In point of fact, Louise had mentioned that there was several Louise in the City of Lumina Cloth, which was her home city and the base of power for the Teutates, but only she could wear the moniker The Terror of Death. By loosely agreed upon law, If you caught someone imitating your name and title, you were given Carte Blanche by the three factions to do with that person what you will, even going so far as to kill them without repercussion.

Colbert had felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as Louise described such a society. They reminded him too much of the old days, during the wars that had torn though so much of Halkeginia, only this sounded far, far worse...

Louise then went on to explain the wonders of The World's technology and magic. Colbert in particular seemed interested in the Steam bike and the Warp Gates. Such tools alone could bring about incredible change to Halkeginia if duplicated with any amount of quality. Louise had admitted that she knew little of both of their inner workings, she waved further questions away to continue the story.

She then described her encountering Tri Edge, the phantom creature that had put her friend into a coma. After a heated battle with the beast, Tri Edge proved itself the victor and cursed Louise as well. When several eyebrows rose at that Louise had then explained that she had awoken later, as weak as she was her first day of The World. As it turned out, she had been defeated by a time draining curse, that reverted her back to the days when she was still just a little girl, forcing her to earn back all the progress that she had sweat blood and tears to make.

That had earned her a few sympathetic hugs from the girls around her, even if most didn't understand a word she said, they could still understand the defeated tone.

After a moment to recover, Louse explained that the first few weeks of that were the most dangerous. When asked why, she again pointed out the law of The World. She was no longer the 'Terror of Death.' If a simple novice warrior could kill her, anyone could claim her title and easily usurp her, and given the name, she hadn't exactly made many friends during her time as a legend.

But all was not lost, she pointed out quickly. Due to a prophecy made in ages past, Louise had discovered that she was what was known as an Epitaph User. A person who housed an Avatar of Destruction within them, granted to those worthy by the Goddess of Light Aura to defeat her enemies. There were a total of eight such Avatars, each representing a different aspect of destructive human tendencies.

Avatar Skeith: The Terror of Death

Avatar Innis: The Mirage of Deceit

Avatar Magus: The Propagation

Avatar Fidchell: The Prophet

Avatar Gorre: The Machinator

Avatar Macha: The Temptress

Avatar Tarvos: The Avenger

Avatar Corbenik: The Rebirth

The final avatar confused both Colbert and Osmond, though it only took a moment for Louise to explain that rebirth meant the destruction of everything that came before it and was therefore the strongest of the eight phases... theoretically speaking at least. She explained, that at the latter end of her journey, her Avatar had become the strongest in light of her absorbing the powers of all the other Avatars in combat. When asked which Avatar was her own, Louise looked at the as if they were stupid and said that her title was in the name, as if it was that obvious. Which it was.

And of the ten people from The World, including herself, five of them were the bearers of an Avatar.

When asked where the other three were by a rather shaky Osmond, Louise had responded that those with her had little to nothing left back in The World and had chosen to come with her for a fresh start, the rest of her comrades had elected to stay.

Louise quickly explained the threat of AIDA, passing it off as a parasitic demon with powers greater than the gods of The World, a parasite which had infected people and had even corrupted a few into doing it's bidding. It was this problem that lead Louise to the Arena, which was a place of holy combat to decide the leaders of the three palaces, great positions of power for any aspiring warrior. After much effort she had worked her way up the rankings until she defeated and purified the arena emperor Endrance, whom she pointed to behind her. In doing so, she herself became the emperor of the Demon Palace, which held a similar influence to that of a high ranking officer of a Guild. To put that plainly, she had won a title of nobility through martial combat.

Now _that_ had surprised both Colbert AND Osmond. Not that it mattered much here in this world but being able to gain a title through sheer skill was a very rare occurrence with only a few Chevalier or knights having that honor; Louise's mother was a very good example.

It was then that Louise described her confrontation with Tri Edge and that silenced everyone in the room. She described the battle in vivid detail, likely having memorized every second of it, burned every tiny bit of revenge into her mind so that if her friend never work from her coma, she would at least be avenged. After what felt like an eternity of battle with the phantom and learning that Tri Edge had a form similar to an Avatar, Louise had stood, victorious over the creature.

Unfortunately, it's defeat had done nothing, Shino had still remained frozen in her unnatural slumber. She then pointed out that they had later found that Tri Edge along with two other creatures similar to him were actually the knights of the Goddess Aura and had been tasked with destroying anything that had come into contact with AIDA. As it turned out, Tri Edge was actually not responsible for her friends coma and it was in fact caused by another.

Ovan shifted in his seat uncomfortably, though he didn't know the language he could certainly tell when he was being spoken about negatively.

She then covered a few other key things, like her defeating of the Holy and Sage Palace emperors, thereby cementing herself as one of the most powerful warriors of The World. She was now on par with Guild Leaders in political strength, only answering to the leaders of the factions and the leaders of the strongest and most powerful guilds that had tens of thousands of soldiers under their command.

Or to put it plainly, Louise held a title similar in power to a duke, answerable only to a level of royalty, if not greater. By now the two elderly mage's were becoming more accustomed to the strange events that Louise had participated in, though they still made note not to piss the young girl off; such power at such a young age to be one of the strongest of an entire _World? _Quite terrifying.

Louise then explained the terrible revelation that Ovan, one of her closest confidants and the girl's previous guild leader was, in fact, the true Tri Edge and had been infected with an AIDA that threatened his very life. She then pointed out that the other man in the room besides Endrance and them was actually Ovan himself.

Colbert and Osmond shot the man a wary glance and palmed their magical foci cautiously. They had a betrayer in their midst and it never did well to have your back to one.

Louise pointed out that this wasn't the worst part of it. Ovan then turned out to be an Epitaph User himself and in fact weilded the Avatar Corbenik, the most powerful at the time. She then explained that Ovan was actually trying to defeat AIDA and that his plan was for her to gather the powers of the other Avatars and use that along with his own Avatar's ability of Rebirth to return the world back to it's normal state, killing the AIDA parasite in it's entirety. He did this for the girl at his side, his sister, who had fallen into a coma because of AIDA.

Thankfully, due to the man's interventions, Louise had gained the power needed for Ovan to activate Rebirth and the world was completely cleansed of the parasite.

"With the death of AIDA." Louise spoke solemnly, bringing her story to it's penultimate point. "All those who were cursed and put into a coma were revived, ending it's threat to The World for good."

"Why does it sound like this isn't the end of your tale?" Osmond remarked with a frown.

"Because it isn't." Louise responded flatly. "When Ovan used his Rebirth ability, a great flash of light cleansed the world of AIDA. Unfortunately, that flash of light revealed a shadow... Cubia."

The way Louise's companions stiffened at that name did little to ease Osmond's worry on the subject. "And that is?"

"A monster." Louise replied coldly. "A beast who has existed since the dawn of The World. A primordial being who was born at the same time as the light and slept in darkness since ancient days. Ovan's light awakened it and it set it's wrath upon the world." Louise shook her head, shivering while she did so. "You must understand, Cubia was the antithesis to what it viewed as it's greatest threat; Me."

"Then how did you defeat it?" Colbert prodded slowly. "Such a beast, I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been to face it."

Louise shook her head. "That and more, as for how? Simple, I temporarily absorbed ALL of the powers from the other Epitaph Users." Louise motioned to several of the others behind her. "In doing so I unlocked the final true form of my Epitaph and was able to use it's Avatar Ability: Death."

Even those that couldn't understand Louise at that moment felt a small chill go up their spines as she spoke that last word with a coldness that rivaled a blizzard. "With help from Ovan, I utilized my powers to finally and hopefully permanently put Cubia down once and for all."

In the silence that followed that, Louise studied the Headmasters face. She could tell that this was a lot to take in but seeing the deep thought and outright wonder on his face was strangely fitting for the elderly man.

Then that look of wonder faded and a small frown found its way onto his face. "There's just one other thing I would like to know. How did you find a way back to our world?"

Louise shrugged. "The Goddess of Light herself sent me back."

Now that got some wide eyes from both of the mages. "You _met_ a _goddess_!?" Colbert gasped in barely controlled shock. Such a thing would normally be a blasphemy but considering the fact that Louise was on a completely separate WORLD, she could be forgiven... possibly.

Louise nodded. "Due to an incident in a previous age, Aura disappeared from The World and The Shadow took advantage and sought to claim the land. Wherever it touched, monsters would appear and cause untold destruction, this is why there are only five major cities left in The World.'

The young Valliere sat back in her chair, her voice starting to crack from speaking so much. "That was also one of the reasons why her Avatars and Knights were sent in to contain the problem. With the use of Corbenick's Rebirth ability, it created enough light to bring her back into The World and after the final battle she appeared before me, thanking me for my part in her return and the saving of her world. She had been aware of my presence since the beginning along with the method of my arrival. It was this same portal that she offered to open and return me to my world." She waved a hand around the room. "As you can see I accepted and she used the meager reserves of her returning strength to open the portal and send me back along those that chose to follow."

A small sad smile graced Louise's lips. "It's my hope that with the return of Aura, the problems that plague The World will become a thing of the past. The people wont have to live like soldiers any longer and there can finally be peace."

With that rather sobering climax to her story, those present to hear it leaned back in their chairs, Osmond and Colbert especially as they had to mull over what was said and try and figure out what to do from there.

It was at that point that Bordeax, who happened to be sitting closest to Louise, snorted in amusement and looked at Louise as if she was crazy. "That has got to be _the_ biggest fucking half true story I've ever heard." Of course the conversation was in Japanese so neither Osmond or Colbert understood them. "I may not speak a whole lot of french but I KNOW you basically smushed what happened to us together with the 'canon' storyline of The World and gave it to them on a platter. Hell, you bullshit half of that stuff up on the spot."

"How did you even understand that?" Louise responded with a raised brow. "I know I was taught Japanese but I don't think I ever taught any of you Tristanian."

Bordeaux shrugged. "It has a passing resemblance to French and Latin. I took some of both while I lived in Germany... at least until mom and dad split and we moved to Japan."

Louise blinked for a moment before a smirk formed on her face. "Well, good then." She responded smugly. "You can help me teach the other's the language."

"HUH!?" The look of outrage on Bordeaux's face was tempered by the sniggers of the other women in the room, particularly Alkaid and Pi. "Why the hell do I gotta do that?"

"Because if you don't." Louise responded smugly. "You'll be the last one to get any."

Bordeaux opened her mouth to throw a retort back but clamped it shut a moment later as a frown found its way onto her face. "That's so unfair Louise."

"Yeah." Louise chuckled. "Just like it was unfair for me when you cornered me back when I was at noob level to get your PK jollies off?" In response to that Bordeaux acted her real age and stuck her tongue out at Louise. A feral little smirk formed on Louise's face. "I wouldn't do that unless you plan on putting that thing to use, Bordeaux-chan."

Again The tanned woman opened her mouth to respond but closed it with a rather gobsmacked click as what Louise said dawned on her. Then her face errupted into a dusky, chest deep blush. "You-you're such a pervert."

Louise's grin only widened as she drew closer. "Oh don't worry." Louise placed a kiss on Bordeax's forehead. "I was only teasing."

The ex-PKer blinked and found Louise's feral grin now downgraded to a satisfied smirk. A twitch formed on her brow. "Why you little... I'll show you who to tease!"

In hindsight, Louise probably shouldn't have poked the crazy lady with the proverbial stick as she found her lips clamped in the vice that was Bordeax's own. With a small groan Louise melted into the woman's embrace. She wouldn't say it out loud but this was a moment she had fantasized about often. Since she was trapped within The World, she could _feel_ everything as if it were real, which inlcuded the kisses she'd received at one point or another from all her lovers. However, she knew that those kisses were merely a token gesture. For all her ability to feel them, she knew that in the real world, those that she loved were merely staring at a screen and couldn't feel a thing.

Now though? Now she could indulge in her lovers, she could savor every little emotion that passed between them like a hot, raging inferno and they, in turn, _could feel back!_ Not even really aware of it, Louise overpowered her dusky skinned lover, clinging tightly to her as she sucked face with such a voracious appetite that even Bordeaux herself was taken aback by it. With an almost perverse thrill, Louise pulled the woman closer, grabbing out to cup her firm behind and pull the PKer closer. A jolt of electricity surged up her spine moments later when she felt their tongues touch. In a bid for dominance the two wrestled playfully but like before, Louise ended up on top and their kiss devolved into small licks and tastes that left the two winded for several long seconds as they broke away to regain their composure.

The silence that followed THAT little stunt was near deafening. Sure, Louise's other lovers looked unfazed by the whole thing, in fact they looked rather eager to try something similar.

Colbert and Osmond on the other hand? They looked absolutely gobsmacked, jaw hanging open loosely.

Osmond was the first one to recover and his wary expression and tone all but broadcasted the way this conversation was going to go. "Ms. Valliere..." He began slowly. "What is your... relationship with this woman?" As if that wasn't already apparent.

Louise shot the older man a frigid look. "Aside from Ovan and his little sister, the rest of my companions here are both my wives and in the case of Endrance, my husband." She ended that with a tone of finality as if it wouldn't be discussed further.

Osmond leaned back slightly at the frost in the woman's tone, apparently she cared for her lovers quite a bit to threaten one of the oldest and strongest mages in Halkeginia. "That's... more than what I expected but not as fantastical as the rest of your tale I suppose." He looked up with a quizzical brow. "Am I to assume that you were married according to the laws of their people." He nodded to the women and man behind Louise.

Louise shared the nod. "With the blessing of Aura herself as well as two of the three most powerful guild masters of The World."

Osmond stroked his beard in thought. "Having your wedding blessed by both a goddess _and_ the established government? You would be hard pressed to find a marriage more binding..." His hand fell. "I do hope you realize that according to our and the church's laws that a marriage such as yours is forbidden." He glanced over at Endrance. "Except for the young man here."

Louise's demeanor soured and a threatening cloud of danger welled up behind her. "If they attempt to disrupt this goddess given union, then we will be forced to bring to bear every power that same goddess has grunted us, as well as our own martial and magical prowess to defend ourselves... if necessary."

The old man tensed. "I was afraid you might say that." He leaned forward in his chair and placed his elbows on the table, bringing his hands up, the old man stared at Louise over his fingers. "You need not be angry with me as I hold no such prejudices, however in the spirit of peace and good relations between your group and Halkeginia-" He grabbed piece of parchment and quill. "-May I attempt to resolve this issue without conflict?"

"That depends." Louise spoke slowly, eying the parchment with unease. "What did you have in mind?"

"Would you grant me a short time to send a few letter to a couple of relevant parties?" He asked politely. "So that we can address this issue swiftly, of course."

"Who're you sending them to?"

An eyebrow twitched, the only sign of the old man's loss of composure. "That would be the princess, the cardinal... and your mother."

A slight pale sheen passed over Louise's face, though she nodded easily enough to the list. "I can accept those. In return may I reacquaint myself with the grounds while I wait? Also would it be too much of a bother if I and my companions took our meals in the Alviss Dining Hall?"

"You may on both accounts. Even with the fastest messengers it would still take some time for a response from both the crown and your mother. Although, I do expect you to be on your best behavior." The old man looked at her meaningfully under his brow. "Incidents like this evening with the de Grandpre boy; Malicorne I believe his name was, should be the exception rather than the rule, understood?"

Louise waved him off. "As long as he and his sort do not attempt anything untoward my lovers or myself, then there shouldn't be an issue."

The old man sighed. "Very well, you may go." As the group closed the door behind them, Osmond waited for several moments, listening to their receding footsteps before he reached into his drawer, pulling out a small hand mirror. Mumbling a few words under his breath, the mirror flashed several times, releasing a small pinging noise. For many moments the noise went uninterrupted. Then-

"Hello?" The tired face of Henrietta appeared in the mirror. "Oh, headmaster Osmond?" The young womans eyes sharpened and her previous fatigue disappeared. "You wouldn't contact me with this if it wasn't something urgent."

"We've found Louise." The old man said simply.

It was quiet for several long moments as the princess digested the repercussions of that those particular words. "I... I see. Am I to conduct another funeral then?"

"Alive." The headmaster corrected her dryly. "Or to be more precise, _she_ found _us._"

The Princess' eyes widened. "How!? Where!? Her mother and I have scoured everywhere within a weeks ride by manticore and found no trace of her, how could she just show up out of the blue?"

The old headmaster cleared his throat. "If you aren't seated, I think it would be wise if you did so."

_**-ooo-**_

"Louise." Atoli whispered. "Everyone's staring."

"Well then, let them stare." Louise grumbled in Japanese quietly, then in Tristanian loud enough for everyone to hear them as she tore into another leg of lamb. After having been trapped in a world that didn't require you to eat to function for near to a year, finally having to eat and in fact the sheer act of eating itself was something of a novelty, which Louise planned to enjoy with gusto.

"This spread is nice and all." Bordeaux pointed at Louise with a chicken leg. "In fact, this food is damn near some of the best I've ever eaten but the atmosphere here could use a bit of work."

Louise waved her off. "They're just upset because they think we're a bunch of magicless commoners." She poked a random something or other with her fork before continuing. "This hall is technically reserved for nobles only. I'd be able to eat here but normally you wouldn't. Since we have the headmasters approval, they cant do anything about it and it's probably eating at their ankles like a hungry hobgoblin."

"As fascinating as this all is." Alkaid leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. "Didn't they get the hint when you nearly buzz sawed tubby over there?" She threw a thumb over her shoulder at Malicorne who was still shivering from the near death experience.

Louise sighed, dropping her food and sliding the plate away, resting her face in her cheek she spoke with a rather withdrawn tone. "I have since found that my people... well, the nobility at least, are perhaps some of the densest and ignorant people I know. I'm starting to have second thought's about this whole moving back to my world thing. After having fought for my life for so long... the lack of adventure just seems so...?"

"Dull?" Endrance asked slowly, twirling a stray strand of hair from Louise's face. "Worry not Louise, I do not regret my decision, nor do the others. To feel your skin like this on mine- " He shivered and closed his eyes. "-It is exquisite"

"I suppose you're right." The Valliere scrunched her nose in thought. "And I do suppose we've yet to consummate our marriage." She flashed a grin down the line. "Speaking of. Ovan, you clever bastard, your little gift actually works."

The man snorted and nearly choked on his food. "So that's why you were in the bathroom for so long, testing the new additions were we?"

"Am I the only one who feels left out of the loop here?" Pi spoke up, downing her second glass of wine and feeling rather good at the moment.

"Ovan." Louise spoke with a smirk. "In his infinite wisdom, thought to hack my character model before we left, so that certain additives would carry over into this world."

"Oh?" Pi asked, barely holding an interest. Then the connotations of that sunk in and she turned to Louise with a slightly tipsy deadpan. "Oh..."

"I'm not following." Shino's frown only lasted until she took into account what Ovan had said and _how_ he said it "Oh... really?" She peeked over the table curiously.

"For those of you who don't know." Pi drained another glass. If she was going to have to deal with genderbending spouses, then she needed to be damn well good and sauced. "Louise is now both a husband and wife in every way..."

The rest of the women at the table blinked, then followed Shino's example and leaned over to get a peek.

"S-stop that!" Louise closed her legs quickly, the staring causing her to slip back into tendencies she'd frankly wish she'd forgotten.. "I-I-It's not like I did it for y-you all or anything." She looked away with a blush on her face.

Alkaid, who was on the other side of Louise, snorted. "And Kuhn called _me_ the tsundere?"

Louise almost got enough wind in her sails to activate her tsundere vengeance at that.

Then Alkaid leaned over and planted a nice wet kiss on Louise's lips.

Louise sputtered for a moment, thinking thoughts of righteous vengeance, then quickly lost her steam as she felt Alkaid's arms snake their way around her. They sat there, much like before with Bordeaux, licking and kissing until they both had to break for air.

Pulling away with a satisfied smile, Alkaid gave Bordeaux a thumbs up and a smirk, which was returned with similar exuberance.

The rest of the hall was silent as a graveyard, many of the students staring at Louise and Alkaid in open shock. Several, like Guiche and a few of the other self stylized 'ladies men' could only stare on in wonder. To most everyone there, the sight of two girls kissing must have been unheard of.

Then, as if a damn broke, each of the members of Louise's little harem decided to get in on the 'kiss Louise silly' train. Endrance being the last one to kiss Louise, did so with far more passion and poise than the others, though it was no less dirty to those around them. Breaking away with a satisfied sigh, Endrance turned back around in his seat with an elegance that Guiche could only hope to copy, even the rose petals that seemed to appear from nowhere trumped the fop's act.

After a moment to bask in the afterglow of such spine tingling experience, each of the harem then turned their attention to the rest of the room and _glared,_ or in the cases of Atoli and Tabby, _frowned sternly_. Almost immediately those watching the spectacle averted their eyes and returned to their meals. Those whose gaze lingered longer than it should have found themselves the recipient of seven in return, with an air of danger surrounding all of them, they wisely turned away as well. The message was clear. '_This is ours!_ _ If you want to make something of it or the way we do things, then prepare to be destroyed!'_

Louise, who was the object of her harems attention and defense, sat in a daze, a shit eating grin on her face.

"Well, I never expected this of you Louise."

And then that grin disappeared under the wall that was Louise's frown. "Hello Kirche, didn't think I'd ever see your shabby self again."

Kirche smirked at that, some things would never change despite how much Louise had. "And a warm hello to you too. It's good to see you again Louise, I almost didn't recognize you with that costume you have on."

Louise rolled her eyes. "And I recognized you instantly with all those fools you have hanging around you."

"Are we really going to devolve into an argument after not seeing each other for a year?" Kirche raised an eyebrow, was it still so easy to rile the girl up?

"No, no we wont." Louise waved a dismissive hand. "I've long since come to terms with our relationship."

"Oh?" Kirche looked surprised at that. "And what happened to my little friend to make her all grown up?"

Louise scowled. "We've only known each other for a couple months, Kirche. That hardly makes us friends." Her expression doubled up when Kirche wrapped the younger girl in a hug, unfortunately sandwiching her head between the dusky woman's breasts, which elicited a growl from a couple of Louise's lovers.

"And I thought I told you the day we met that I didn't care about what our ancestors did a hundred years ago. In fact, I don't care much about what my family does now, so why shouldn't we be friends?"

"Well, for one." Louise responded dryly. "You're about three seconds away from getting hit with a Lei Zas spell from my lovers; You being dead would be a very good reason."

Kirche blinked sheepishly and glanced up at the others at the table. She paled slightly when she noted that two of the women had a staff out.

And all of them had a white ball of light hovering at the end of a staff or clutched in their fist...

"Right.' Kirche said slowly, gently releasing Louise from her grasp and holding her hands up. "We're all friends here." She laughed nervously. "How about I start from the beginning." She place a hand on her chest. "I am Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst, and this." She stepped to the side, revealing a blue haired girl no one had noticed before. "Is Tabitha."

"Troublesome." The bluenette sighed.

Louise's lovers powered down their spells warily.

"What did she say?" Tabby whispered in Japanese.

"She's trying to be our friend and she introduced herself." Bordeaux muttered to the rest. "Her name started with Kirche and ended with Zerbst. The girl behind her is Tabitha."

Alkaid, like the rest, had yet to put her weapons away. "Do you think she's legit?"

"It's better than trying to fight her." Shino pointed out.

Atoli nodded. "Yes, I think it would be best if we gave her a chance."

In several flashes of light their weapons and spells were put away.

"Right." Louise nodded at the less threatening atmosphere. "I'll translate your introduction into my language." She switched to Tristanian to speak to Kirche. "They agreed not to smite you where you stand and want to introduce themselves, I'll translate."

Atoli bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you miss Zerbst. I am Atoli, a Harvest Cleric."

Shino mimicked her twin's actions. "Shino; Harvest Cleric, as well as the current guildmaster of the Twilight Brigade."

The only other dark skined woman in the group looked at the similarly toned Kirche. "Bordeaux; Blade Brandier."

Alkaid crossed her arms and nodded lightly. "Names Alkaid; Twin Blade and former Demon Palace Emperor."

The more feminine male of the group stood and curtsied like a noble at court. "I am Endrance, Blade Brandier and like Alkaid I was also once the Demon Palace Emperor, a title which Louise currently now holds."

That got a few raised eyebrows from those in earshot as Louise translated it.

Tabby's grin was almost infectious. "Names Tabby; Tribal Grappler and ex-guildmaster of the Paw Pad Squadron"

Pi adjusted her glasses in a very Yata-esque manner. "Pi; same as Tabby and second in command of the Guild: Raven."

Ovan stood and bowed lightly. "Ovan; Steam Gunner and ex-guildmaster of the Twilight Brigade." He looked down at his sister and gently moved her forward.

"I-I'm Aina." The girl spoke quietly. "Shadow Warlock... and Ovan is my big brother."

"Oh, she's so adorable." Kirche nearly squeed as Louise had even replicated Aina's meekness when she translated her words.

To this, Louise just looked amused. "Being a shadow Warlock, she's also the strongest mage of our group, so you would do well not to irritate her."

Kirche blinked, mouth open as she looked back and forth between the two. "You've got to be kidding... this little girl is stronger then you?

A shark like grin formed on Louise's face. "I said the strongest _mage_. Her class allows her access to higher tier spells that those of us who picked a more physical discipline are incapable of, that however, doesn't mean she's the most lethal."

"Oh?" Kirche scanned the group of people carefully. "And who _would_ be the strongest of this group?"

In response to that, Louise's grin grew larger as she dipped into a low bow. "I apologize, I forgot to reintroduce myself." An aura of power seemed to radiate around Louise. "I, am Louise Francoise Le Blance de La Valliere; Adept Rouge and Current emperor of the Demon, holy and Sage palaces; Guildmaster of Canard; Two time conqueror of the Forest of Pain; Slayer of the One Sin, The One Death and The Doppleganger; killer of the Sixteen Chaotic PK's; Bearer of one of the eight avatar's of the holy Goddess of Light, Aura." Louise grin was practically demonic as she yanked her Scythe Dakini out and spun it in a confusing pattern of light before slamming the roaring chain weapon several inches into the stone floor right in front of Kirche, sending out spiderweb cracks that crackled with energy. "And lastly my title: The Terror of Death!" With that display, the roaring of her weapon and the powerful aura that surrounded her, Louise cut a _very_ imposing figure.

If the silence during the make out session before was quiet then the silence now was absolute as no one, not even the barely heard birds outside encroached upon the unnatural soundlessness. Then, Louise broke it by taking a deep whiff of the air. "You smell that?" She asked her companions in Japanese. "That's the smell of vindication!"

"Actually." Alkaid wrinkled her nose. "I think one of these idiots pissed themselves in fear."

"Eh." Louise shrugged. "Close enough."

_**-ooo-**_

Karin Desiree de La Valliere -otherwise secretly known by her maiden name as Karina Desiree de Maillart or more infamously by her title; The Heavy Wind- was not amused, not amused at all. It started like any other week for the past year. She had sent out a small group of spies who would search for any information on the whereabouts of her daughter, they would then come home after that week and give their findings to her. Now normally, she would have sent out riders by now rather than coming herself but she had received a message from Princess Henrietta about information regarding Louise.

Or to be more precise, the exact location and current status of her dearly departed daughter, who she knew for a fact wasn't actually deceased. At least, that's what she told herself at night to stop herself from grieving and breaking the small hold of the rule of steel that she still yet commanded. Yes, she was at her wits end, her nerves frayed and temper returning at the smallest slights. It had only been realized months after the fact that Louise was the glue that held their family together. With Eleanore being distant, Cattleya sickly and her husband off Brimmer knows where taking care of the family's finances and estates for weeks on end... it was lonely.

For the first time in years she had admitted to loneliness, that feeling of meekness that was derived from complete isolation from what you yourself desired. Sure, she had Cattleya to talk to but her quiet and wilting flower of a daughter didn't have the outer fire that burned within her mother's heart. And Eleanore, who was home less and less often had only embodied the worst traits of her personality. No, only Louise had showed the same steel and fire that she had with the same desire to succeed. It was this attitude that all but demanded her to teach her youngest the full measure of the rule of steel.

But to her shame... her daughter was not a prodigy of magic that she had once claimed so highly. No, her daughter was in all probability a Blunt: A magical shortcoming that rendered a persons magic inert at best or volatile at worst. Louise had been unfortunate to gain the latter and it had caused no end of embarrassment for the family.

And yet Louise persevered. Never stopping. Never quitting. It filled her heart with pride to see her daughter so motivated to succeed... yet that pride was tempered with the knowledge that she would likely never make it to dot, that she would always be the family's dirty little secret. That knowledge had hurt the mother inside her far more than most would know. The knowledge that her daughter would end up as nothing better than breeding stock, to hopefully jump the gap of blunt and reestablish a strong magical affinity. It had hurt in only the way a parent could know, to watch the child they had reared to have such a fire in their heart, only to see it doused in the waves of failure and duty.

Which was why the Incident - and it begged capitalization- had put such a strain on the Valliere Matriarch's cold metal heart. With Louise gone, a hole iron clad emotional defenses which she had for the longest time been unaware had suddenly widened. Now, like a ship on the ocean, that hole was taking water and bit by bit the sea was filling her up, filling her heart with wretched emotion that she had long thought suppressed. The week after the funeral services, when her heart was filled with cold sorrow, she had sent out a single rider to search for her daughter. In the coming weeks one became two, two became five, and five became ten.

In these last months she had almost lost it several times. Particularly with Eleanore, who, while initially somber and withdrawn with the supposed death of Louise, had since gained back her icy, snappish personality. That personality grated against the cold steel around her heart like fingernails on chalk board and made what was left of her heart shiver in agony. At one point, she had been one word away from using the Heavy Wind on her daughter, only the quick hand and words of her husband had stayed her rage. The subsequent low powered tempest had tossed everything in the room, including Eleanore, against a wall. Had her husband not stopped her, the full powered version would have likely killed rather than bruised.

In the privacy of her bedroom, It was at that point that she had broken down, months and months of pain and agony of losing the daughter who had most embodied her had broken the woman. After a night with her husband who had spoken with her, consoled her and kept her sane, Karin finally realized what she had to do. It was not desperation that she now searched for her daughter in these final months. No, It was a sworn duty as the mother of her daughter. She knew Louise was still out there, a pair of smoking shoes wouldn't have been enough proof of death, never! If an explosion of magic had killed her daughter then there would have been more blood, more destruction. But all that had been destroyed was a small section of floor where a circle had been and some mild smoldering on a book nearby.

A book about the Familiar summoning Ritual: A ritual that would prove once and for all that one was a true mage...

Karin didn't need a degree at the University of Magic to put two and two together. Louise had probably practiced the drawings of the circle as well as the incantation so that she could prepare for the ritual. It was something the mother knew her daughter was want to do. With the lack of any true magic, Louise had instead put all her faith in one event, turning to her mental genius that she had refined to a dagger point to prove once and for all that she was a mage, even if it was only a limited one. It was this mind that had probably doomed her daughter to some foreign land.

Knowing her daughters propensity towards accidental releases of magic and their sometimes contradictory results, she had likely inadvertently activated the circle and somehow summoned _herself_ somewhere else. In some ways that made her mother just as proud, knowing that her daughter had succeeded in at least _some_ kind of magic, and the knowledge that she would likely survive wherever she'd landed due to that same intelligence that had doomed her in the first place.

But now... now she had news, news she had hoped for, prayed for...begged for...

Her daughter was alive!

And more than that she was... married.

Karin shook her head, that being the least of the strangeness that had been brought to light by the princess' message. Her daughter was married... to seven people... six of them other women. And she had been called in along with the princess and cardinal to handle both it and this talk of a goddess that her daughter seemed to be a follower of.

Normally she would call that blasphemy. But then she'd been told that same goddess had been the one to send her daughter back, which meant actual interference from a divine being in mortal affairs. For her levelheaded and Brimmer loving daughter to even consider converting to another religion or at best supplementing her own with it... there likely had to be undeniable proof of this goddess' existence and power.

None of this mattered at that moment as Karin all but kicked down the gate to the school courtyard, proceeded up the many winding staircases of the main tower to the headmasters office. Along the way she met the princess and cardinal whom both looked no less resolute to see if what Osmond had told them all was true. They stopped at the door, Karin taking a deep breath before she did so.

She turned the knob and let the door swing in.

Her eyes narrowed on the half score of people inside other than Osmond and Colbert. As she was told there were two men, the more elegant one likely her daughters husband, while the rest were women of various styles and design. Quickly discarding the notion that her daughter would marry the young child, she noted that while her daughter's taste in gender was strange to her, the girl's taste in beauty and skill were not.

The moment she had walked in the door, they all had formed a wall in front of Louise, each of their hands inching towards what she could only imagine to be some sort of weapon. These people were comrades, soldiers at arms and their dependability of each other would likely be as absolute as any married couple she could ever find. Yes, She finally asserted to herself, these people were definitely fit for her daughter.

Speaking of which. A shock of pink hair -not attached to the other pinkette who clearly had none of her facial structure and therefore likely only shared the hair color- moved forward through the group until she stood in front of them.

Louise... her daughter. Look at how much she had grown! A small bit of moisture formed in the Duchess' eyes as she walked forward. Louise looked so much like her; The hair, the face... the eyes.

Karin blinked, temporarily stopping half way at the look in her daughters eyes. Those were the eyes of a warrior, of someone who had been in countless battles and come out by the skin of their teeth.

They were also the eyes of a killer. She would know, she saw them every morning in the mirror.

A small cry from her soul screamed at her for letting her daughter become the creature that she had been up until her daughters disappearance, that wretched heart of steel that had driven a cold wedge between her and her family. But then, something drew her attention, something that had a small bit of pride work it's way into her heart when she noted the caution in her daughters eyes, the concern for the women behind her shimmering in their depths. No... Louise wasn't like her. No group this large, no matter how well aquatinted they were, would ever share a life with each other unless they truly did love the ones they were sharing. They might not show it to a threat -and she most definitely constituted a threat if Louise had mentioned anything about her to them- but in private, or at least in a comfortable setting, they most likely showed as much love for each other as she wished she could have shown to her daughter.

Louise stared at her mother for several more moments before walking forward, coming to a stop half way as well and no more than a few feet from Karin. The mother and daughter stared at each other for several long minutes, just looking into the eyes of the woman who they had based their entire life around for over fifteen years.

It was in that moment that Louise's eyes changed, having noticed a single, small bit of moisture in her mother's own. As if the flood gates were let lose, tears came freely to the youngest Valliere. "Mother." She whispered huskily, fighting back the urge to cry.

Karin didn't even show that much restraint as she all but snatched her daughter into her arms and planted her face into the girls shoulder. Like the wind after which she was named, she allowed all her emotions to flow out in one heavy breath; releasing all the pent up stress, all the long sleepless nights, all the aches and pains that had nearly driven her to madness. All was released in one long, soul wrenching scream that was thankfully muffled by Louise's clothing, a scream which whittled out into a series of sharp body wracking sobs that brought both of them to their knees.

To say Louise was shocked by her mother's actions would have been an understatement. A shock that lasted only as long as her tentative grasp on her own emotions held... which only endured for a few moments until she found herself hugging her mother just as tightly.

Neither one spoke during the tearful reunion, they simply held each other. Truly, for the first time as mother and daughter... but nowhere near the last.

_**-ooo-**_

"As a representative my ass." Louise growled in Japanese as she and the motly group from Osmond's office made their way a distance away from the school. The nobles and royalty rode horses while Louise and her group walked, not because they couldn't ride, several of them were experienced but they had always ran in The World and this felt the most comfortable to them.

Bordeaux walked up beside her and patted the girl on the back. "You have to admit though, that conversation ended better than you thought it would. All we have to do is prove Aura's divinity and we get treated like dignitaries from the Mystic East."

"They only made those laws because we rarely have contact with their caravans." Louise responded crossly, shaking off the comforting hand. "Even less so their clergy. Aura on the other hand is a deity of an alternate reality, even in your world her powers only extend through the net. The only thing of hers that came over with us are the avatar's and I'm not certain if they can actually manifest here." The nervousness in her tone, didn't help matters any.

"We can only hope." Ovan mused, falling into step beside her. "At worst we are all still powerful fighters who've taken on monsters many times the size and strength of any mage of this world. If worst comes to worst, we can always attempt a Rip Maen to resurrect someone." He turned a curious eye on the girl. "Am I right to assume that there are no resurrecting magics on this world?"

Louise's mood brightened a bit, eager to test her knowledge but her voice was still agitated. "In some ways, yes. Necromancy or forbidden firstborn magics can raise the dead... though those brought back by such means are merely a shade of their former self, nothing more than a soulless shell with the memories and abilities of the person revived. Vampires are also a case of undeath but are extremely rare and dangerous. It is possible that Rip Maen might be considered Necromancy, it would depend on the cardinal's reaction."

Ovan appeared less than pleased by that. "Let us hope he equates it to divine providence then."

The group traveled for another hour or two until they happened upon a large clearing far off into the forest. Merely a break in the tree line, the clearing was surrounded by larger than average trees, likely due to a fire that had made the clearing in the first place. Louise called for the small procession to stop as she took in the place, going over several calculations in her head the Valliere found that the place was more than large enough to call upon an avatar without gaining undo attention or accidentally destroying large swathes of forest.

"This will do." Louise moved away from the party and made her way into the clearing.

"So now that you've found what you were looking for. What have you planned to show us that will convince me and by extension the church, that your goddess should be recognized as a foreign deity and thus be given diplomatic immunity rather than be considered heresy?" Cardinal Mazarin was a polite man when it came to political dealings and the necessity of assisting the royal family but he could also be rather prideful when assured of his superiority. And why wouldn't he feel that way? No matter the fact that he was outnumbered, he only considered that of the four mages there representing Halkeginia, three of them were living legends that had trained together during the great wars; Osmond the Howling Gale, Colbert the Flame Snake and of course, Karin the Heavy Wind. Alongside the princess who was herself a Triangle water mage, there was little a bunch of sword wielding warriors could do to hurt him.

Oh how wrong he was.

"The Goddess of Light." Louise spoke easily. "Gifted eight individuals with an aspect of human destruction. These eight were known as the Epitaph Users and the power that they summoned forth were known as Avatar's" She stared dully at the Cardinal. "Of those eight, five of them are here now; Including myself there's Atoli, Endrance, Ovan and Pi." She pointed out these individuals to the elderly man. "These gifts should be more than acceptable to prove her divinity." She shot her lovers a glance. "In the event this does not convince you, there are other methods; Deity blessed spells of healing that each of us are taught in the event of an injury... or in the worst case, death."

Mazarin frowned at that. "You speak as if you have means to bring back the dead."

"That's because we do." Louise remarked firmly, drawing a choked gasp from Henrietta and Colbert, as well as a swear from Mazarin and Osmond; Her mother simply narrowed her eyes.

"Blasphemy!" Mazarin growled. "To fool with the bodies of the dead and create some soulless abomination!"

"In most cases, at least for our magical system, you'd be right." Louise agreed. "Except the magical system that their people and myself use was granted to them by their old gods and the spirits of nature. As long as there is an intact body and it hasn't been deceased that long, you can pull the soul back and heal the damages."

Louise glanced over at her lovers, silently urging them to play along even though most of them couldn't understand what she was saying, intent was readable easily enough. "Barring death by monster, most of their people live to an elderly age despite the constant life of war, simply because of their powerful healing magics. In fact, the only permanent deaths that most suffer from are those that healers can't reach in time, or that their body is completely destroyed." Ok she was making that up, most of the time you only stayed dead when your entire party was defeated. Since this wasn't a game, the minor lies would make a believable half truth. "Unfortunately, most of the monsters of their world are highly voracious or destructive and those that do fall rarely ever have the chance to be revived before their comrades are also slain, which would render them permanently dead."

Karin closed her eyes, humming to herself. "So the deaths are permanent due to absence rather than practice?" She opened her eyes to stare at her daughter. "You mentioned that their people had powerful healing magics? How powerful?"

"Powerful enough to heal grievous, near-death injuries instantly." Louise assured. "As well as healing a number of effects that monster were prone to using, including curses, poisons, and a number of charms."

Karin matched her daughters stare for a few moments before whispering "Would they be capable of healing your sister?" Though everyone could hear her in the quiet clearing.

Louise opened her mouth to say something, then her mothers words really sunk in and she closed it. "I... I am unsure... there were very few actual diseases where they come from, most were simply virus infections and those that caught them didn't last long enough to develop diseases..."

"I see." Karin, relented gently. "I suppose it was too much to ask for two miracles..."

Louise frowned at that and frantically wracked her brain for some way of helping her sickly sister... oh if only it were a computer virus she could simply Data Drain it into obliv- Louises eyes widened as she turned slowly to Ovan, arguably the most tech savvy person there. "Ovan, if someone was sick on this side of the portal, do you think Data Draining them would treat a disease like corrupt data and remove it from the person?"

The man's eyebrows rose noticeably as he pondered such a question. "I'm... not sure... we would need a suitable subject to test that idea. In theory it could work. Our spells and powers have transferred over so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to think that our avatars could be capable of something that it's powers normally wouldn't cover."

Well that was something... Louise nodded her thanks. Turning back to her mother, the youngest Valliere spoke slowly. "There is... one possibility... If any of our avatars are capable of full manifestation then it is possible that we can attempt to drain away the disease that afflicts Cattleya... though I've never tried such a thing on a human before."

Her mother tensed for a moment before her muscles relaxed. "Then we shall see to it after this affair is over and done with."

"And my lovers?" Louise had to ask.

"As long as you follow through with these wonders you speak... then I shall accept them."

Louise's heart soared at that; her mother actually approved of something she'd done! All she needed to do was prove her words true. With a confident grin Louise walked to the middle of the clearing, clenching and unclenching her fists in anticipation of calling on Skeith. Taking her place a dozen meters from the group, Louise tensed, a roar building in her throat as her fists shook.

_**"!"**_

Those who hadn't witness the use of an avatar before felt more than heard the reverberations in the air that sounded vaguely like a tuning fork being struck. Underneath Louise's feet the very fabric of reality seemed to ripple as the girls body took on a red outline.

Henrietta stifled a gasp as golden symbols formed, hovering just above the skin all over Louise's body, accentuating the armor she already wore as well as giving her an almost ethereal glow. Then she heard what appeared to be Louise's voice echo through the void.

"Alright, come on, come on!" Louise gripped her head, tensing as if in pain. "I'm, RIGHT HERE!SKEEEEIIIIITH!" A burst of golden light erupted from Louise's body as she reared back and stared into the sky. The light forming a sphere around her and forcing those witnessing to cover their eyes lest they be blinded.

When the audience stopped seeing spots, they turned back to see...

Another gasp came from Henrietta along with those who hadn't already seen the form of Skeith in all it's glory.

"My god." Mazarin swore, staring up at the being in front of him. It stood nearly fifteen feet tall, far larger than any beast the man had ever seen. It's body appeared to be made of a pure white metal with gear like joints and long spindly, knife-like limbs that floated independently from the main body; the chest and head, likewise appeared to float separate as a single sphere hovered in the intersecting point of all the limbs. The face was devoid of features except for three glowing red eyes and a pair of long elegantly curving horns.

Aside from the strange body, random spheres interlaced the things wrists, shoulders, knees and the last one in the chest; A series of seven blades formed an angelic wing-like structure behind the creature as well.

The final oddity the man noted and what was more apparent then the strange things appearance... Power, absolute power that seemed to cloak the being in a radiant red glow that made it appear as divine as it was described to be.

Then Skeith took a step forward. "Behold! Skeith, the Terror of Death!" Louise's voice seemed to radiate from the creatures body, though it had a slight metallic ring to it.

The Avatar then turned toward the opposite end of the clearing, which stood a line of tall oaks thick enough that even a triangle class wind spell would have a hard time cutting through them. With a roar, the blades on Skeith's back fanned out, glowing a golden color before they turned into great beams of light, splitting in half to create fourteen beams that bored straight through the trees and continued on through several dozen more trees behind them.

Not to let that small feat define her, Louise then clenched the empty air, her avatar doing the same. In Skeith's palm a large scythe made from golden energy formed. With a quick twist a blade of energy easily the Avatar's height soared across the distance and cut through the first line of trees, then the next line... then the next line, continuing on past the line of sight of those on the ground. But Louise wasn't through, no, she continued her twist, bringing the blade around in a parallel slash that sent several more, blades down range. For the finale, Louise reared back, a golden windmill of energy spinning like the blades of a fan on Skeith's back.

Then she released it, sending the easily sixty foot wide disc of energy towards what was left of the tree line and turning it into mulch as far as the eye was able to see at ground level. From Louise's point of view however, the girl could see a hill off in the distance which was the only thing that stopped the energy blades from continuing on unimpeded.

"Such power, on the level of Square at least." Osmond mumbled to himself though Louise's currently enhanced hearing caught it.

"This is nothing compared to some of the attacks that the other's are capable of." She laughed cheekily, the words echoing metallically around the clearing. With the sound of breaking glass, the Avatar disappeared and Louise floated to the ground in particles of white light. She eyed the rather gobsmacked expressions of her Halkeginian audience, sans her mother of course, who appeared to be staring at the destruction with a rather keen eye.

"Is that the full extent of it's powers?" Karin asked slowly, going over the damage of that and what her Heavy Wind could accomplish.

Louise shrugged "The Avatars were meant to fight incredibly strong and large, individual threats." She pointed to the destruction. "I could use those same attacks hundreds of times and only be slightly winded from it. The endurance of an Avatar is there so that it can match the near indestructible nature of the things that it has to face. AIDA for example, each of those infected with the parasite are completely invulnerable as long as they have their shields up, it takes a near constant barrage of that magnitude to destroy their shields and allow the use of the most powerful weapon each Avatar has at their disposal; Data Drain."

"Data Drain?" Colbert asked curiously, such an odd name for an extremely powerful attack. "What does it do?"

Again Louise raised her shoulders. "I don't honestly know what it does in detail, but the way it was explained to me... it basically 'fixes' that which is abnormal, it heals the corruption and abnormalities in The World and seeing that AIDA was one big corrupt abnormality..." She trailed off, letting those words sink in.

"It would essentially wipe it from existence." Karin grimaced, such a powerful weapon, to basically undo the existence of something, as long as it wasn't supposed to be there... that sounded very much like something a Goddess would grant to a group of humans, it wasn't a power of destruction, it was one of healing, to rip out the infection by force if necessary. Karin's eyes widened slightly as she analyzed that thought for a moment. "You plan to Data Drain Cattleya?"

Louise blinked, caught off guard by her mother's observation. "Yes actually. I'm making an assumption that the disease in her body is something unnatural and Data Drain _should_ remove it... though I'm unsure if it is actually capable of something like this, so I might need to test it on someone first." Louise glanced over to Henrietta. "Perhaps a prisoner that's suffering from some incurable disease?"

Henrietta nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Louise's gaze moved to Mazarin, who was sweating lightly in the face of such destructive power. "Is that proof enough of Aura's divinity or should my lovers show you their forms as well?"

The man gulped, shaking slightly. "For thoroughness sake I think it would be best to display all that these... Avatars are capable of before I make a decision."

Bordeaux whispered the translation to the rest of the group and those that had Avatars made small noises of annoyance at the man's thick headedness but relented nonetheless.

It was funny, after seeing the size of Louise's Avatar, most of those present who hadn't already seen the others probably thought that Skeith was as big as they got. So when the sword-like Innis appeared, nearly three times the Terror of Death's size... well, Mazarin was seriously reconsidering his thoughts on his supposed group's superiority. The destruction caused by Innis' swords and energy blasts leveling another portion of the forest was another nail in the coffin of the man's sense of security.

This was further pounded home by the Cat head-human torso-flower body form of Macha, with it's energy rings and number of long ranged attacks, the poor tree's in the forest were already looking worse for wear. The... controversial bondage form of Tarvos raised a few brows but were quickly wiped away by the creature's destructive potential as energy spikes tore through the downed tree's in the clearing and continued on, pinning the wood to the ground.

The final Avatar was Ovan and his purified Corbenik, while humanoid unlike the others, the creature was still much larger than Skeith. The barrage of Clinch Needles finished off what was left of the forest that surrounded the now much larger clearing.

Louise looked over to Mazarin, who looked as white as a sheet. "That enough for you?"

The man stared at her blankly for several moments before pulling a scroll from his robes. He found a suitable log that was knocked over and unrolled the scroll on the bark. From his robes he pulled a quill and inkpot, quickly scratching out what was probably a well memorized document onto the parchment, he then finished with a flourish as he signed his name. Given his political clout as both Cardinal and Regent of Tristain, it was well within his power to approve this document. He glanced over at Colbert. "Would you do the honors?" A quick dot level fire spell dried the ink and the Cardinal rolled the scroll up and tossed it to Louise. "I'm getting too old for this shit." He mumbled, before walking back to the horses.

Louise stared down at the scroll for a moment before opening it up to read. After scanning the pages, Louise's face lit up with a satisfied smirk, that alone tipped off the other gamers that Louise's ploy had worked; Aura was now a recognized foreign deity by the Church of Brimmer and was therefore had legal power to practice anything pertaining to their religion as long as they did not attempt to subvert the people's right to believe in Brimmer and his practices or cause harm to another's person or property.

So her harem marriage was now legally binding in this world!

Louise's smile turned predatory as she gave her lovers a perverted little leer.

More than a few shivered in anticipation...

_**-ooo-**_

They made it back to the school in short order, moving far quicker thanks to casting Ap Do and using several dozen Speed Charms over the party, the later of which was something that Colbert had marveled at, he even started asking Ovan and Alkaid, who had been the ones to use the Speed Charms on everyone, question's on how they were made.

Louise looked at the Elder fire mage as if he ware daft. "They can't understand our language Mr. Colbert, I thought I mentioned that earlier?"

Colbert blinked. "Why no... that would explain why they haven't answered my inquiries..." He frowned slightly. "How can you understand them if I may ask? Do they have some variation of the Translation spell available to them?"

Louise actually smirked at that. "No sir, I learned the old fashioned way." That rose a few eyebrows from the Halkeginia group, especially from her mother, who felt a rather large ping of pride that her daughter actually learned another language fluently enough to converse with an entirely different people in such a short amount of time. Louise smirked, pride clear on her face as well. "Their language is very complex and polite, so it's quite difficult to learn, even I still have some difficulties getting things across to them."

"Perhaps I could be of assistance then?" Colbert asked congenially. "There are certain spells that allow people to learn the language of another fluently, all it requires is the blood of the person who's language you're attempting to learn and I would be more than happy to be the donor and caster of the ritual."

Louise stared him with a deadpan. "You're just trying to bribe us so that you can learn about their technology." She accused.

Colbert smiled sheepishly but didn't deny it. "I am merely curious about their world, to have such fascinating things, even a working model of something I've been attempting for many months now-" When Louise looked at him funny the balding man rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Oh, it's just a small toy I devised that uses a flame to move a little toy snake back and forth, nothing too complex but from the brief description of the workings of this Steam Bike, the mechanisms appear vaguely similar."

Louise's eyebrows rose at that, remembering one of Ovans goals in this world she quickly relayed the information to him.

"So he's created a simple combustion engine has he?" The Steam Gunner rubbed his chin in thought. "Judging by this worlds level of technology It's probably best to assume that he's the only scientific community here and with access to the materials and magic to quickly and efficiently make the materials we don't have... hmmm, yes, he will do nicely." Ovan glanced up and nodded to Louise. "Tell him that we agree, as long as I can be there with him. Out of all of us, I along with Pi are the only one's who are old enough to actually know a good portion of what I'm about to impart to this man, so it would be best if we were able to understand each other."

Finished with his little monologue, he left Louise with the task of explaining what he just said to the teacher. Colbert was many things, but in this instant, patient was not one of them. When he was told he would indeed get a chance to see the field study he had only just scratched the surface of, yet was several centuries, if not a half millennium more advanced.

He nearly jumped at the chance.

_**-ooo- **_

Louise fell back onto her bed with a gasp, utterly spent as those around her gasped for breath as well.

"How the hell did that turn in an orgy?" Alkaid mumbled from the floor, off to the side and to the left of Louise.

"What the cherry said." Bordeaux raised a hand to point to the ceiling, though only the tips of her fingers were visible to Louise over the end of the bed. "What the hell happened?

Louise pulled herself up to a sitting position to take in the room and all of her lovers splayed out, completely naked and in various states of satisfied stupor. How the hell did it turn out like this. Last thing she remembered was having a family meal with her mother and then retiring to her room with her lovers, where everything went to hell... She blinked, taking in the room again and felt her own satisfaction in the delicious ache of her body and the spent pleasure still sending ghostly tingles through her nether regions.

Perhaps 'went to heaven' would be a more appropriate euphemism?

A knock sounded from the door. Louise groaned as she stumbled to her feet to get it, hastily throwing a robe over herself to cover her indecency. Opening the door found her mother, standing there with a furrowed brow.

Louise twitched in confusion as her mother stared at each of her naked lovers with a severe expression before turning her eyes on her. "I see that my preparations worked better than I had hoped." The frown on her face dropped, to be replaced with a smile.

An eyebrow twitched on Louise's face. "You had something to do with this?" She asked incredulously.

In response to this Karin pulled out a small half empty vial of some bright pink liquid. "I bought this years ago in an effort to get Eleanore reacquainted with the idea of marriage and children... but she was never one to listen, even to her own body."

"You drugged us?" Louise squawked, staring at her mother as if she'd grown another head.

"It is merely a strong aphrodisiac." Her mother shrugged. "And I saw the looks you were giving your lovers... as well as heard you contemplating who would be your first." She waved a lazy hand around the room. 'This way, they all were your first."

Louise looked like she'd sucked on a lemon. "Be that as it may, that kind of thing is-"

Karin deadpanned, cutting her daughter off. "Louise, I have very few things with which to amuse myself these days, at least let me enjoy putting my children in humorously debaucherous situations."

A stricken look passed over Louise's face. "Did you just make a joke?"

Her mother cleared her throat. "Perhaps... I expect grandchildren from this, if not now then soon; I wish to spoil them."

If anything Louise looked even more flabbergasted. "We can't have children this early, we've only been-"

"Grand. Children." Karin stared directly into her daughters eyes, putting emphasis on each word.

"Grandchildren..." Louise nodded, meekly backing into the room, while closing the door slowly in her mother's face who didn't stop staring at her until the wooden fixture blocked her view... and even then she felt her mothers gaze through the wood.

"You mother is crazy." Alkaid remarked offhand.

"Again, agree with the cherry. " That was Bordeaux.

"That was underhanded of her." Pi mumbled from the other side of the bed, from her standing position she could make out the top of the woman's head as she leaned against the bed. "Can't say that she doesn't play a damn good wingman, this was actually kind of nice, having all of our first times in these bodies together I mean."

"All this stamina makes it so much more enjoyable. "Shino chuckled breathlessly from the side of the room. "It's amazing how long we can last now, even in things like this."

"Agreed." Atoli snuggled into the crook of Shino's arm.

"How the heck did I end up under the bed?" Tabby grumbled, coming back from the land of delirium to find her head poking out from under the bed skirt

"It must have been a beautiful night." Endrance muttered wistfully. "Though much of it is a blur to me."

"I remember most of it and yes it was amazing." Louise grunted, bending her spine until a loud, wet series of cracks echoed in the room.

"How does that not hurt your back?" Tabby moaned from under the bed.

Louise smirked. "The same way you did that thing with your mouth last night without hurting yours... you were quite... flexible by the way..."

Tabby rolled her eyes after a few memories of last night graced her with their presence. "I'm a cat woman, what did you expect?"

"I still don't know how the hell you both can be so big." Bordeaux muttered, staring at both Louise and Endrance's naked bodies. "With how fruity Ol Endy there acted most of the time I half expected you to be a dyke under all that armor."

Endrance sent her a bland glare. "As if you have the right to call me that, you act more mannish than everyone here, except for perhaps Louise and she is technically your husband so that is a given."

"Yeah and you're lucky that you weren't the bottom when Louise got around to you." Alkaid chuckled, raising herself to a kneeling position by the bed to playfully glare at he man.

Endrance's eyebrow twitched as her turned his nose up at the woman. "I would be perfectly happy to partake of any part of Louise's body, including that which makes her a man."

Alkaid snorted then fell back in floor rolling laughter at the thought of Endrance being the woman of the relationship. "You have got to be the weirdest guy I know.

"And I appreciate that weirdness." Louise chuckled as well, knowing how odd all this must seem to someone from the outside but here, in the confines of her room, with the people that she loved... well there was just nothing that could beat it.

Tabby pulled herself out from under the bed and rose to a sitting position. "So what do we do now?"

A loud growl chose to answer her, a loud growl from Louise to be exact.

Louise looked down at her stomach, a deep red blush on her cheeks. "I suppose food would be the first order of the day."

Another knock interrupted the afterglow for the group. "Who could it be this time?" Louise grumbled, throwing the door open to find a rather large cart of food and drink enough for eight people set up outside. A letter was sitting in the middle of the display, which Louise picked up and opened.

_Grand. Children._

Louise stared at the two looping and gold etched words blankly before a groan of annoyance left her lips. "Mother is going to be insufferable for the foreseeable future." Another rumble of her stomach answered her. "Though I suppose it's nice that she's just being annoying rather than severe." She blinked, then stared down at the food suspiciously, in light of that letter it would be wise not to trust the food unless they were ready for round two... speaking of... Louise looked down and noticed a certain part of her anatomy seemed to be raring to go this morning. She turned back to her lovers. "In the event that this food is spiked like the last bit, is anyone ready for round two of our honeymoon?"

"Here here!" Bordeaux and Alkaid cheered.

"I think I'm up for it." Shino and Atoli shared a smile.

"Give me a glass of wine and I'm good." Pi grumbled, picking herself up. "It's just been awhile that's all."

"After we eat and rest a bit." Tabby groaned. "If it's any problem with you, I think I'll go last."

"It would be best if I bathed first." Endrance grimaced slightly. "I seem to be rather...sticky."

"That would be Louise's." Alkaid smirked, giving Louise a sly grin. "Who knew she was a squirter?"

Louise turned away from the group hiding her bright red blush. "S-shut up you."

"Like you're one to talk." Pi leaned over the red head to stare down at the girls body. 'If I remember correctly you practically soaked through the top comforter." She then pointed to a blanket wadded up in the corner of the room that had a rather pronounced stain on it.

"And you moaned loud enough to wake the dead." Alkaid retorted.

"Can't we all just agree that we all have our quirks?" Atoli was up, rubbing her hands together nervously. "I'm just happy that we can satisfy each other, no one get's left out or neglected."

Shino was beside her then, hugging the girl. "Yeah, we can all agree on that. It's nice, having such a large family, even if it is a strange one."

Everyone was silent after that, no one speaking for many moments until Louise let out a little breath while running her hand through her air. "Family huh?" She looked around the room at the man and women that had devoted themselves to her and each other... it was a strange relationship... but it wasn't a bad one. It was...

Family.

"Yeah." Louise smiled, happier now than she could ever remember being. "We're just one big eccentric family."

_**-ooo-**_

Wardes giggled madly. There was no way... simply no way that this was possible. He had killed the prince and the forces of Reconquista were utterly destroying what was left of the Loyalists.

So how could everything have gone so wrong?

All Louise had done was look at the quickly cooling corpse of the prince and spoke two words; Rip Maen and poof! the dead prince was now alive again looking rather pissed off. Outside, the forces of Reconquista were being routed like common rabble by giant beings that seemed like the vengeful hands of God, destroying everything in their path.

Wardes continued to giggle madly up until the point that Louise backhanded him with the flat side of her broadsword, knocking the man out cold.

Prince Wales looked at his would be assassin with a small sneer before turning to Louise, teeth shining in the dim light as he let out a little chuckle of gratitude. "I can't thank you enough Louise, you saved my life."

"Don't mention it" She mumbled, all too happy to put down the evil elements of this world. Hey, she may have been disillusioned to the status of nobility by her lover's world but that didn't mean she hated the world she now lived in... it just needed a few... changes... changes Ovan and Colbert were already devising. They were already working with people from all walks of life, including some of the less snooty nobles, blacksmiths and many healers to take the applications brought here from Earth and apply them here. With Magic there were so many possibilities with the resources here, including windsones, extremely large deposits far underground could finally be tapped for fuel and to harness the anti-gravity nature to do things that would have made scientists back on earth scratch their heads in confusion.

With such power in the hands of the common people, Nobility would mean less and less until it was more of a title rather than a state of being, it would increase the economy, increase the number of jobs available, increase the quality of life for everyone. It was almost utopian in concept, all it need were those dissident few who spoke out against their loss of power to be curbed. Reconquista one among their number, they sought the destruction of the current Albion monarchy but all they'd be doing was replacing one totalitarian government with another, it was almost humorous.

The freedoms she'd seen at a distance from her place in The World, spoken of in passing and witnessed through the cracks of The World during it's infection, there was so much out there that her world could become and after Ovan had pointed out how simple it would be... well, she wanted excitement, overthrowing the established order was as exciting as she could think of. She even had Henrietta's blessing; Tristain was full of corrupt nobles abusing their powers and that needed to change, likewise there were any number of other mages oppressing the common peoples all across Halkeginia.

There was just so much left to do... they still needed to bring Albion under heel. Then Gallia with rumors of madness following the king around, they would need to weed out the problems there as well. Then onto Romallia, the Pope had been rather too kind to welcome her and a foreign religion into his lands when they had met the week before. There was just something about the man that seemed...fake... They would take care of him next. And finally Germania... while it wasn't a Brimmeric nation, Louise had felt bad about leaving Kirche's surprisingly progressive country in the dust. She had to admit, at least to herself, that the Germanian's were more noble than most of the so called nobility in Tristain...

_Of the people, power given. For the people, power used._ It was a strange concept but Germania had coined such a thing when they had given every person the right to lead as long as they worked for it. A noble of Germania could have been a peasant but so long as they used their power for the betterment of the country and it's people, then it didn't matter where you came from.

And that was a lesson Louise took to heart. It didn't matter where you came from, only your deeds defines who you are.

Louise stared up at the utterly ruined forces of Reconquista and her comrades who had decimated them, their Avatar's routing at every available chance. Louise chuckled to herself then, if this was anything to go by, then her legacy and the legacy of her lovers would be that of conquerors... Oh well, it wasn't like they were destroying the world... no, they were creating a new one; Like the title of Ovan's avatar, this world needed a rebirth. Louise briefly pondered the amusing notion of how The World creators would react knowing that the name of one of their factions were being used to change a foreign world. She idly played with a patch on her shoulder, a patch depicting a roaring lion over top a magical staff. She'd be lying if she said ruling a faction was easy; It wasn't easy, but she had a lot of practice running Canard so it wasn't like running the Teutates faction would be that difficult... right?

_**-ooo-**_

_**This is one of those points in a story where you kind of just have to let things go. I'm sure at some point one of my other stories might end up this way if I screw up and take them down a road that has no conflict. That is the point of most stories, to create conflict (Hopefully in interesting, thought provoking and Lord help us all, well written ways) The threat of defeat kind of stops being an issue when your main cast can smash in the face of pretty much everything in universe. **_

_**This is basically my superman vs batman argument in story form. Having a plan is all well and good but the thing is, one of them is a physical god, the other is a squishy human with a tactical brain and while the veritable David vs Goliath match up can make for good reading, it also ignores the fact that Goliath is the good guy here. In fact, if Superman didn't have his no kill ethic like the rest of the pants-on-head retarded superheros of the DC universe then the worlds supervillians would be gone within the week. Hell Superman wouldn't even fight batman fair, he could just lazer eye beam him from orbit and he'd never even know he was there, much less have time to react to an attack that's moving at roughly the speed of light.**_

_**My point is, when the main character can bitch slap threats into their composite elements then there isn't much of a story. Now granted, there ARE godlike stories out there, but those stories treat the godlike being as a force of nature rather than a physical character. Take Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate for example. There is literally nothing that can kill him, it takes a contrivance, a freaking chekovs gun just to inconvenience him for a few decades. And a few decades mean nothing to an immortal vampire. **_

_**And even then Hellsing follows the correct format of a godlike story and has a squishy cast to counterbalance, hell it could be argued that Seras Victoria is truly the main character of the story as it follows her decent into vampire-hood **_

_**This story here was basically, like I said, an "after the fact" story that had Louise returning to her home. There was no plot to add to that, it was basically. "Louise shows up back home after becoming a badass; shit happens." That was literally the single line of text that I started with and it ended up being this... I'm not saying it's bad, it's actually a exercise in describing a story for me, I haven't had much experience in this particular brand of explanation so it's a practice for other stories later on. **_

_**As for cutting this chapter a bit short in the timeline (relatively speaking) It's because Louise and company would turn Halkeginia on it's head. The problem is, there would be no conflict, they could wreck absolutely every threat they come across. With Louise and the other Epitaph users, the threat of Reconquista, Joseph and hell even an entire squad of elven archmages would be like throwing ping pong balls at a brick wall and hoping to break through. And with Colbert and Ovan supercharging the scientific community, the nobility system would become something more mundane as average soldiers can now utterly dominate on a battlefield with superior weaponry. And with scientific innovation mixed with magical reality bending they can create a more utopian world as there really isn't a shortage of food or jobs as with an economic boom and the ability to magically grow things much faster than normal, the economy and standard of living would sky rocket. Just imagine the medical sciences being performed by water mages who doesn't even have to cut you open or subject you to radiation to get rid of cancer or some other serious illness. No, they can go in and remove it via magic, breaking the thing down into something harmless. **_

_**Mages would then take on a more respected profession so, instead of nobility, mages would be a public service, the cops, firefighters and medical personnel that help others. I know this wouldn't be likely to happen quickly. No, they need to disillusion the current ruling nobility and bring in those bastards and cast off nobles who aren't so uppity and corrupt. This would end up as more of a political series rather than the hack and slash epic that the .hack games are known for... so I stopped it here. It's anti climactic I know, but it wasn't meant to be something grand... just a bit of muse juice that squirted out of my ears and formed a story.**_

_**Till next time peeps.**_


End file.
